Michael McCabe with wife Jen and daughter Kate at the announcement of his run for Mayor of Westfield in May. (File Photo)
WESTFIELD- Mayoral candidate Westfield Police Sr. Capt. Michael A. McCabe said Nov. 6 that he may call for a recount of the votes from Tuesday’s election.
The votes tallied on Election Day had McCabe’s opponent, state Sen. Donald F. Humason Jr,. winning the election with 4,983 votes to McCabe’s 4,886, a difference of 97 votes.
McCabe indicated that he was not 100 percent sure he would seek the recount as of Wednesday morning, but said that he “probably would.”
McCabe said Nov. 5 after the results came in that he would likely not seek a recount. He said he changed his mind when he realized that the difference of 97 votes gave Humason a margin of victory of less than 1%.
McCabe cited issues with voting machines. He noted that he did not know why some of the ballots did not work or how many there were, but that he was not criticizing the election in any way.
“You should just do it anyway to validate some of the votes,” said McCabe.
As of Wednesday shortly before noon, City Clerk Karen Fanion said that no recount requests had yet been filed for the mayor’s race.
There were 9,978 total ballots cast out of Westfield’s 24,919 voters to bring the turnout to 40 percent.
