Wareham and Carver state rep race still unsettled as Gaskey and Hewins request recount petitions due Friday

WAREHAM The race for the state House seat that covers Wareham, Carver and part of Middleborough is still not settled eight days after the election, and both candidates have requested recount petitions, which are due Friday, Nov. 13.

State Rep. John Gaskey, a Carver Republican, and his Democratic challenger, Carver Select Board member Sarah Hewins, have both requested the petitions, according to Debra O'Malley, a spokesperson for the Secretary of the Commonwealth, as quoted by The Wareham Week. The results are unofficial until the state certifies them.

The outcome decides who represents the district in the next Legislature, and the numbers have moved enough in a week that Gaskey has twice claimed a win while the unofficial results still show Hewins ahead by a slim margin, the Week reported.

What the count shows

With preliminary tallies in on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 4, Hewins had 9,264 votes and Gaskey had 9,175 across the district, an 89-vote lead, the Week reported. Gaskey carried Carver, 2,787 to 2,573, and the district's part of Middleborough, 1,840 to 1,417. Hewins carried Wareham, 5,274 to 4,548, after the Wareham count arrived about 7 a.m. Nov. 4, according to the Week. Wareham's own preliminary results, posted early Nov. 4, show the same town figures, along with 450 blank ballots and nine write-in votes in the race.

Wareham's Town Clerk's Office updated its unofficial count on Monday, Nov. 9, showing Hewins ahead in the town 5,306 to 4,588, a 718-vote margin, according to the Week. Overseas mail-in ballots and provisional ballots will still be counted until Nov. 13, the Week reported.

By our math, the 89-vote margin on Nov. 4 was about 0.48% of the 18,439 votes the two candidates received, under the one-half of one percent line in the state recount law, and counting blank ballots and write-ins in the total would only lower that share.

Two victory claims and a request to the state

Gaskey declared victory in a Facebook post on the night of Nov. 3, before Wareham's results were released, and later deleted it, the Week reported. He said again on Friday, Nov. 6, that he had won, by 64 votes.

In a statement on Facebook, Gaskey asked the Secretary of the Commonwealth to investigate what he called errors by the Wareham clerk's office in reporting the results. He said a spreadsheet of unofficial results he received from Town Clerk Lisa Johnson on Nov. 6 showed him gaining 171 votes once more mail-in ballots were counted, and that by Nov. 9 the gain had dropped to 41, the Week reported. "[V]oters deserve an accurate count and a full explanation when the numbers provided by election officials inexplicably changed enough to reverse the apparent outcome," Gaskey said in the statement, as quoted by the Week. He also faulted the clerk's office for letting the errors slip through, even if they were typing mistakes, according to the paper.

O'Malley said the difference was likely caused by "data entry errors," that results candidates receive before certification are unofficial, and that the office's election director spoke with Gaskey and his legal team on Nov. 9, the Week reported. She said Gaskey had photos of results that matched the Nov. 9 figures. "If [Gaskey] has reason to think the results are not right, he can pursue a recount," she said.

Hewins is waiting on the final numbers, according to the Week. "Things are still fluid as far as I know," she said. "I am eagerly awaiting the certified, actual vote."

How a recount works

Under General Laws chapter 54, section 135, a recount in a single town or some of its precincts is petitioned through the town clerk by 5 p.m. on the 10th day after the election, which this year is Friday, Nov. 13. A district-wide recount petition goes by the same hour to the registrars of voters in each city or town, then is filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth by 5 p.m. on the 15th day, Wednesday, Nov. 18. A district-wide recount is allowed only when the gap between the apparent winner and another candidate is not more than one-half of one percent of the total votes cast for the office, and its petition needs signatures equal to one-fourth of the number required on nomination papers for the seat.

Who is running

Gaskey won the seat in 2024 after beating longtime Rep. Susan Gifford, a Wareham Republican who held it from 2002 to 2024, in that year's Republican primary, and he narrowly beat Mark Townsend in the September primary this year, according to the Week. Hewins has served on the Carver Select Board since 2009 and ran a write-in campaign against Gaskey in 2024. If her lead holds, she would be the first Democrat the district has elected since 2000, the Week reported.

South Coast 360's Election Day side-by-side of Gaskey and Hewins compares the two candidates.

South Coast 360 has asked Wareham Town Clerk Lisa Johnson, the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Elections Division and Gaskey about the count, any recount petitions and when the results will be certified, and will add their answers to this story.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.