Recount confirms Ed Pacheco's victory

After a recount on Wednesday, Sept. 9, it was proven that Edward Pacheco did win the primary election for Ninth District Bristol County State Representative. 

After the initial primary election on Tuesday, Sept. 1, Steven Medeiros stated that he would be filing for a recount. Pacheco was initially against the recount as he did not want to postpone his campaign. 

However, he felt that if a recount was going to happen, it should be a district-wide count, and as he was unsure if Medeiros was filing for a district or a precinct recount. Both Medeiros and Pacheco filed for a district-wide recount on Friday, Sept. 4. 

Dartmouth had the same number of ballots as it did initially, with 5,213 votes. Pacheco won by 14 votes, with a total of 2,493. 

Medeiros won in New Bedford by six votes, receiving 397 to Pacheco’s 389. Pacheco won in Dartmouth by 22 votes, getting 2,104 votes to Medeiros’ 2,082. 

“This is a wonderful day for democracy. We had all votes counted and we’re ready to move forward to our general election, November third,” said Pacheco.

He thanked all the officials and poll workers who came out to participate in the recount. The workers spent hours counting each ballot, grouping them and then adding them up. 

“I think the best thing out of this was that we get to see the Democratic process in action and actually see everything being verified and checked,” said Medeiros. “At the end of the day, the numbers ended up coming out to be about the same.”

He added, “My campaign’s over. Ed’s going to continue on to November.”

Pacheco will be facing off against Republican Chester Tam during the midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 3.