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Andrew Shepherd

Margaret Scarsdale officially declared 1st Middlesex state representative

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Margaret Scarsdale can officially use a title she thought she had secured in November — 1st Middlesex District state representative.

Tuesday night, the Special Committee appointed by House Speaker Ron Mariano to examine the results of November’s election returned a unanimous decision declaring Scarsdale the winner of the race. The decision to not seat Scarsdale, the Pepperell Democrat, happened as Townsend Republican Andrew Shepherd filed a late court challenge to the election outcome on Dec. 23 in Superior Court.

Shepherd lost the general election by 17 votes and a subsequently lost a recount by seven votes to Scarsdale. Appearing before the Special Committee on Friday, Shepherd argued that “human error under the smallest of margins… materially affected the outcome of this race.”

Citing past precedent in 1988-89 Connolly v. Secretary of the Commonwealth, Shepherd’s attorney Michael Sullivan said the courts would have to order a new election take place.

Shepherd called into question signatures on mail-in ballots not matching, saying he felt it was “intentional” that town clerks didn’t examine the signatures. Additionally, he said that 114 ballots were discovered during the recount.

In response, Dennis Newman, attorney for Scarsdale, said varying signatures are not unusual. He also responded to Shepherd’s point about additional ballots, saying that 85 of those ballots were found to be test ballots or blanks.

In a statement Tuesday night, Scarsdale expressed excitement about getting to work.

“I am deeply grateful to Speaker Mariano for his steady leadership and to the committee members and their staff for their expeditious review and their attention to this critical process. I am eager and ready to get down to business serving the hard-working people of the First Middlesex District. I am excited to continue to advocate for our communities as a seated member of the House of Representatives, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House to deliver real results for my district this session,” Scarsdale wrote.

While Shepherd was unwilling to say if he’d accept the Special Committee’s decision on Friday, he said Tuesday he had called Scarsdale to congratulate her.

“Our campaign is disappointed by the decision of the special house committee, but we are grateful the committee was willing to listen as we presented significant errors that came about during this election cycle,” Shepherd wrote in an email. “We hope these issues raised about the process will lead to the strengthening of our voting system. I’m excited to continue my advocacy in our community and work with our new State Representative Margaret Scarsdale”

Scarsdale took the oath of office Wednesday.

Reporter Shane Rhodes contributed to this report.

Margaret Scarsdale’s swearing-in as 1st Middlesex state rep. delayed

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Democrat Margaret Scarsdale, the presumptive winner of the 1st Middlesex District state representative seat, will be unable to be sworn-in with the rest of her peers at the State House on Wednesday.

In a statement shared Tuesday night, House Speaker Ron Mariano said the House would temporarily delay the swearing-in of Scarsdale and presumptive 2nd Essex District winner Democrat Kristin Kassner.

“While I look forward to swearing in Representatives-elect Scarsdale and Kassner, the House will temporarily delay their swearing in to allow the Special Committee to Examine the Returns to thoroughly review the last minute legal issues raised in each race, and affirm the results of each election,” Mariano said.

Both races have been contested by their Republican challengers, with 1st Middlesex District opponent Andrew Shepherd of Townsend filing his contest on Dec. 23. However, the Scarsdale campaign said that it was unaware of Shepherd’s filing until Dec. 27.

Arguing that the court would lose jurisdiction over the matter Wednesday when the House receives a list of certified names of elected state representatives from the Secretary of State’s office, the Scarsdale campaign filed a motion to dismiss the pending court case.

Additionally, the Scarsdale campaign cited the state Superior Court’s ruling in the 2nd Essex District case from Dec. 29, which argued that it did not have jurisdiction over the case as state Rep. Lenny Mirra challenged his loss to Kassner.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Scarsdale said she was disappointed she would not be taking the oath alongside her peers.

“I, like so many of you, was looking forward to this day, when our district, for the first time in nearly a year, would have representation in the State House. Due to my opponent’s eleventh-hour lawsuit and election denialism more broadly, my swearing-in has been temporarily delayed,” Scarsdale said.

Scarsdale continued, “This new and dangerous trend of not just denying election results, but using frivolous, disingenuous methods to delay the certified winner from taking her seat is chilling, and it poses a direct threat to our democratic process and the values we cherish in the Commonwealth and in our great country.”

Additionally, Scarsdale urged the Special Committee to work expeditiously and said she was looking forward to its review of the election, believing it would uphold the results of the general election and subsequent recount.

“In the meantime, I continue to dedicate myself to all six communities in my district. In the coming days, I will announce opportunities for constituents to meet with me and share their priorities for the new legislative session. I am excited to continue to advocate for our communities as a seated member of the House of Representatives, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House to deliver real results for my district this session,” Scarsdale said.

In a statement, Shepherd said he was “heartened” by Mariano’s decision to delay seating Scarsdale.

“I’m heartened to hear that Democrat Speaker of the House Ron Mariano has delayed the seating of Margaret Scarsdale while there is a review of the merits of our case, further solidifying that this legal complaint is not election denialism, but a review of serious irregularities under the smallest of margins. We hope this review will be used to strengthen the voting process throughout the Commonwealth,” Shepherd said.

As Andrew Shepherd challenges 1st Middlesex, judge dismisses Lenny Mirra’s case

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A Superior Court judge dismissed Republican state Rep. Lenny Mirra’s legal challenge after a recount flipped his 10-vote reelection victory to a single-vote loss, while another Republican House candidate defeated narrowly has launched his own lawsuit.

Essex Superior Court Associate Justice Thomas Dreschler tossed Mirra’s complaint Friday, one day after writing a 10-page order denying Mirra’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would have prevented Democrat Kristin Kassner from being sworn in as the next state representative for the Second Essex District on Wednesday.

Dreschler said he believes the court does not have jurisdiction at this point, after the Governor’s Council and Gov. Charlie Baker certified Kassner’s one-vote victory following the recount, and instead said “the House of Representatives has the final authority to decide a claim to a seat as a representative.”

“Even if this court were to conclude that it has jurisdiction to hear this dispute, the entry of a preliminary injunction in Mirra’s favor would be futile and a waste of judicial and municipal resources,” Dreschler wrote. “For whatever reason, Mirra waited until just before Christmas to file suit, with the swearing-in set to occur on January 4, 2023. While the court could make a judge available for a trial on the merits on an expedited basis, it would be impossible to complete a trial by January 4, 2023.”

Mirra’s attorney, former state representative, Plymouth County district attorney and U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Michael Sullivan, on Friday filed a motion appealing Dreschler’s decision to dismiss the case.

Townsend Republican Andrew Shepherd is also fighting in court after a recount declared him the loser to Democrat Margaret Scarsdale by seven votes in an election for an open Middlesex County House seat.

Shepherd alleged in a complaint filed Dec. 23 that signatures on some mail-in ballots do not match those voters’ registration signatures, that Groton officials oversaw a “disjointed” recount that “likely resulted in the tallying and reporting of incorrect results,” and that there were extra, unexplained ballots in Lunenburg.

He asked a Middlesex County Superior Court judge to order a new election “to preserve the integrity of the race.”

Andrew Shepherd to challenge 1st Middlesex District state rep. race result in court

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After a narrow recount loss, Townsend Republican Andrew Shepherd will challenge the result of the 1st Middlesex District state representative race in court.

Shepherd will ask a state judge to review the result of the race after 114 newly counted votes narrowed Pepperell Democrat Margaret Scarsdale’s once 17-vote margin of victory to just seven.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Shepherd maintained, as he has throughout the election process, that his intention was to ensure “every ballot was legally cast and properly counted.”

“My greatest concern throughout this recount process was to make sure that every ballot was legally cast and properly counted,” Shepherd said in the post. “Our democracy affords us the opportunity to check, challenge, and verify the results of close elections – ultimately reaffirming confidence in our system.”

That said, Shepherd did question many aspects of that process and said his team had found a number of inconsistencies in the final count. He also questioned whether every voter had been sent the proper ballot following the state’s redistricting process in 2020.

“Regardless of political party, it would be a stretch of the truth to have witnessed this process and say every town’s count was without irregularity,” Shepherd said. “I do want to commend our town clerks and registrars for conducting this recount to the best of their ability, but I believe they are executors of an imperfect system where natural human error calls into question the outcome of a race this close.”

“After much deliberation over the challenged ballots and other procedural errors, my team believes we have a credible argument worthy of a judge’s review that could materially affect the representation of this district for the next two years.”

Shepherd also said the decision to take legal action was not an easy one and affirmed that, through that decision, he did not mean to imply the election had been “stolen.”

“I do not undertake the decision to go to court lightly and I want to be clear: this election wasn’t ‘stolen’ – it’s just excruciatingly close,” he said. “I believe that every single town clerk, registrar, and poll worker acted in good faith. I believe that the vast majority of ballots – mail-in, early, and in-person – were legally cast.”

“But given the errors uncovered during the recount and the newness of mail-in voting by right in Massachusetts, I believe the unique circumstances of this election deserve a second look by a judge,” Shepherd said.

In her own Facebook post on Tuesday, Scarsdale cast doubt on Shepherd’s challenge and asked supporters to help “defend the integrity of the democratic process.” Later, in a statement on Thursday, she said she was “disappointed” in Shepherd’s “eleventh-hour filing” but remained confident in the result of the race.

“Our team is still reviewing this eleventh-hour filing from the Shepherd campaign to overturn our victory in court,” Scarsdale said in the statement. “We are disappointed at Mr. Shepherd’s attempt to circumvent the will of the voters across the district. We remain confident that our local election officials have conducted this election and the subsequent recount with integrity and transparency and that the court will uphold our victory.”

“I look forward to being sworn into the Massachusetts House of Representatives on January 4th and continue to meet with leaders across the district in preparation. I am committed to representing all constituents of the First Middlesex District and working closely with our municipal leaders to overcome the financial strain this lawsuit will pose for our communities,” she said.

1st Middlesex District race likely headed to recount

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One week after polls closed, voters still do not know the winners in two Massachusetts House races that are likely headed toward recounts with high stakes for the already-depleted Republican minority.

Election officials in Pepperell, Dunstable and Groton plan to meet this week to count additional late-arriving ballots in the race for their open state representative seat, where Republican Andrew Shepherd leads by fewer than a dozen votes over Democrat Margaret Scarsdale.

Further to the east, a trickle of eligible votes counted after the initial Election Day burst has slashed Georgetown Rep. Leonard Mirra’s tight margin to a nearly microscopic one. It wasn’t clear Tuesday whether any more ballots are still outstanding, but a recount appears likely to decide whether the incumbent Republican secures a sixth term or first-time Democratic challenger Kristin Kassner flips the seat.

On Election Night, Mirra tweeted that he led by 83 votes with all precincts reporting and is “excited to get back to work” on Beacon Hill.

Based on a News Service analysis of publicly available results on Tuesday, with more than 24,000 votes cast, Mirra’s lead now appears to have shrunk as low as single digits.

“We’re closing the gap if we have not already closed the gap,” Kassner, who did not say definitively if she would seek a recount, told the News Service on Tuesday afternoon.

Mirra found himself trying to secure the votes of a largely new constituency under the new political map lawmakers approved. The current North Shore district he represents covers Georgetown, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, West Newbury, and parts of Haverhill and Boxford; the updated version for the next decade tilts further southward across Georgetown, Hamilton, Ipswich, Newbury, Rowley and part of Topsfield.

Recounts, where elections workers tally ballots by hand in public, can only take place in Massachusetts contests if a candidate requests one by securing sufficient voter signatures on a petition. To secure a district-wide recount, the margin must be within one half of one percentage point of the votes cast — a requirement that both the First Middlesex and Second Essex races would meet — while no such margin limit exists for recounts of individual precincts.

Candidates must submit district-wide recount petitions with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office by 5 p.m. Friday.

In the race for the 1st Middlesex District that covers Ashby, Dunstable, Pepperell, Townsend and parts of both Groton and Lunenburg, a News Service analysis of unofficial results on Tuesday found Shepherd in the lead by 11 votes among more than 20,000 cast.

Margaret Scarsdale, Democratic candidate for the 1st Middlesex District state representative seat, campaigns outside of Groton-Dunstable Regional Middle School on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (JACOB VITALI/SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE)
Margaret Scarsdale, Democratic candidate for the 1st Middlesex District state representative seat, campaigns outside of Groton-Dunstable Regional Middle School on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. (JACOB VITALI/SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE)

Pepperell election officials will meet Wednesday at 9 a.m. to tabulate additional mail-in ballots, Dunstable will follow suit on Thursday at 1 p.m., and Groton will do the same Friday at 10 a.m.

The pool of outstanding votes could be more than enough to tip the contest in either direction. Zack Gavel, Scarsdale’s campaign manager, estimated the trio of communities collectively has another 25 to 50 votes to add.

“In a race that has this narrow of a margin, if there’s even a couple of those outstanding, that could be significant,” Gavel said.

Even once the final ballots are added to the totals, that might not completely close the book on the contest. Both candidates have picked up petitions to seek a districtwide recount.

Shepherd told the News Service it’s “too early to tell” but “likely” the election will come down to a recount.

“The race is still very much undecided,” Shepherd said. “We’ve had a number of towns already count some mail-in ballots. To our knowledge, we’re still up, but we’ve got towns counting tomorrow and Thursday as well as some overseas ballots that could be coming in and provisional ballots.”

Asked if Scarsdale would seek a recount once the numbers are finalized, her campaign manager said they are “keeping all of our options open.”

Last week marked the first general election in Massachusetts with a permanent law in place allowing widespread voting by mail and expanded early voting after both options proved popular and successful on a temporary basis earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the law, any ballot postmarked inside the United States by Election Day counts as long as a local election official received it by 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12. Ballots for overseas voters can arrive up until 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18 and remain valid.

Gavel said the campaigns are unlikely to have a “quick answer” for voters who want to know the winner in the race, given the ongoing wait for overseas ballots and the time that would go into a potential recount, but stressed that constituents should “continue trusting that the process is working as it’s intended to play out.”

“It could be a matter of weeks instead of days before we have a final answer,” he said.

Shepherd, who interned on Beacon Hill during college and today owns Bayberry Hill Water Company, is vying to keep the somewhat reshaped district represented by a Republican and stave off further erosion of the House GOP caucus.

Most of the communities in the new First Middlesex District were represented for more than a decade by former GOP Rep. Sheila Harrington of Groton, who resigned in February after Gov. Charlie Baker tapped her to become clerk magistrate of Gardner District Court.

The latest decennial redistricting altered the district that Harrington held, splicing out some Groton and Ayer precincts and adding parts of Lunenburg.

If she emerges victorious, Scarsdale, who previously chaired the Pepperell Select Board, would flip the district.

Democrats are already poised to increase their veto-proof House supermajority to at least 132 of 160 seats, three more than where they began the 2021-2022 lawmaking session.

A win for either Kassner or Scarsdale — or both — would add to the gains that already surpassed insider expectations in a bruising cycle for Massachusetts Republicans, who in addition to shedding in the House lost all statewide races in a clean sweep.

Mirra is also hoping to avoid becoming the only incumbent representative or senator to lose a reelection bid in Tuesday’s general election. A single lawmaker, Rep. Marcos Devers of Lawrence, lost to a primary challenger in September.

Andrew Shepherd edges out competition, takes 1st Middlesex representative seat

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By the narrowest of margins, Andrew Shepherd would appear to be the next state representative for the 1st Middlesex District.

Shepherd, a Republican, is set to take the seat vacated by former state Rep. Sheila Harrington, also a Republican, who stepped down from the position last February to serve as clerk magistrate of Gardner District Court. He faced Democrat Margaret Scarsdale and Independent Catherine Lundeen in Tuesday’s general election.

At press time, according to preliminary results, Shepherd had led with 9,305 votes to Scarsdale’s 9,271 votes and Lundeen’s 1,057 votes.

While he refused to declare victory Wednesday morning, Shepherd called it a “hard-fought race” and was appreciative of those that voted for and supported him throughout his campaign.

“It was a hard-fought race by everyone involved,” Shepherd said. “We are very proud of that, as well as all of the support we’ve received — we appreciate each and every volunteer that has been here for us and the campaign over the past 11 months.”

“Now we’re just looking forward to each town certifying their results and, hopefully, going down to Beacon Hill to represent the (1st Middlesex) district,” he said.

Shepherd’s victory came after a similarly hard-fought primary election back in September, where he faced Lynne Archambault for the Republican nomination. Shepherd bested Archambault by a count of 2,255 to 2,174.

Prior to election night, Shepherd touted the “duality” of his experience, both in “real life” and on Beacon Hill, and stressed that it better prepared him for the vacancy. A business owner — Shepherd is the owner of the Bayberry Hill Water Company — Shepherd also interned in Harrington’s office and, later, served in the state’s Office of Access and Opportunity during his time as a student at UMass Amherst.

Shepherd also said the race had “humbled” him and, if elected, he would do his best to “put more money in families’ pockets” and focus on what he called “kitchen table economics.”

Late Wednesday evening, Scarsdale remained positive as she commented on Tuesday’s election.

“As the polls have now closed this election day and while we await final results, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the outpouring of support our campaign has received,” Scarsdale said. “Together our team knocked on over 5,000 doors, made over 3,000 phone calls, sent thousands of handwritten postcards and hosted dozens of meet and greets and visibilities across the district.”

“Without our amazing volunteer team, none of this would have been possible. Regardless of the final outcome, we have so much to celebrate and be proud of and our team truly left it all out in the field,” she said.

Lundeen could not be reached for comment.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from Margaret Scarsdale.