MALDEN — Next week’s School Committee recount is the third scheduled by area communities.
Malden and Saugus will hold recounts on Monday while Medford’s will be held on Saturday.
Malden’s recount focuses on the two-vote victory by Ward 2 School Committee member-elect Robert McCarthy Jr. over incumbent first-termer Emmanuel Marsh. The recount will be in the John and Christina Markey Senior Center in Malden at 6 p.m.
McCarthy, who won his first race after running unsuccessfully in two city elections, 2013 and 2015, for a citywide and ward post, topped Marsh, 421-419, in the November 7 final.
Each candidate won his home precinct, with Marsh prevailing in Ward 2, Precinct 1, 231-148 and McCarthy taking Ward 2, Precinct 2, 273-188.
Marsh did not initially say he would seek a recount. But he later filed a petition with the Malden Board of Registrars of Voters.
Medford officials scheduled a Saturday recount of Nov. 7 balloting that saw School Committee member Robert Skerry Jr. lose by 34 votes to Paul Ruseau.
On Monday, Saugus will hold a recount requested by Corinne Riley, who finished sixth in the race for Board of Selectmen. She trailed fifth-place finisher Mark Mitchell by 16 votes.
It has been a decade since the last recount in a Malden election, according to Assistant Registrar of Voter Carolann Desiderio. In 2007, a City Council and a School Committee race were challenged. But the final counts did not alter the results.
Monday’s recount will be overseen by the Board of Registrars of Voters who will monitor four pairs of vote checkers.
Marsh is serving his first term on the School Committee, having defeated incumbent Maria Doucette. This was the second straight election where an incumbent has been ousted in the Ward 2 School Committee race if the recount shows the original vote stands.
If the vote is verified by the recount, McCarthy will be one of two new School Committee members for the next term. Political newcomer Jennifer Spadafora won the Ward 3 School Committee seat, which opened because the incumbent Larry Silverman decided to not seek re-election.
