A recount in one local race in New Hampshire declared Democratic candidate Maxine Mosley the winner by one vote.
On election night, Republican state Rep. Larry Gagne won the state representative seat against Mosley by 26 votes. The final results were 1824 for Gagne and 1798 for Mosley.
“It’s what I expected the first time out,” Gagne said. “I’m happy that the superior opted to allow the count to continue, and so it did, and I’m the winner.”
That changed after a recount on Tuesday, when Mosley was declared the winner by one vote, defeating Gagne by a count of 1,799-1,798 for second place.
New Hampshire House seat decided by one vote after recount https://t.co/oXApRfg6Av
— WBZ | CBS Boston News (@wbz) November 15, 2022
Mosley called it a “historic day here in New Hampshire,” adding that “everybody was gracious and there was no nastiness and no negative politicking” and that “it was as it should be, you run on your merits. I am very appreciative of all [the] candidates.”
Gagne, meanwhile, said it was “very unusual” for so many votes to change since he was winning by 26 counts.
This comes after Judge Amy Ignatius ruled the Manchester Ward 6 seat recount could proceed, which took several hours.
“The greatest weight must be attributed to the complete and lawful count of the votes to determine the will of the people,” Ignatius said.
Following the recount, however, Republican Secretary of State David Scanlan demanded a second recount because an audit uncovered evidence of an administrative error in the recount that indicated not all ballots were counted.
Republican Will Infantine also said that there will be an appeal to the Ballot Law Commission after the recount.
New Hampshire Democrats released a statement about the ruling, arguing that under state law, once a recount is complete, it can’t be reopened.
“One thing is clear from this decision – Secretary Scanlan acted outside the law. From the beginning, this case has been about the integrity of our elections. The courts agreed with our arguments that the Secretary of State did not follow the statutes, exceeded his statutory authority, and should not have taken the action of calling for an additional recount,” the statement read.
