Auchincloss lead grows as Fall River votes roll in; Mermell asks clerks for more info

BOSTON -- Newton City Councilor Jake Auchincloss looked to be inching closer to being able to claim victory in the Fourth Congressional District Democratic primary on Wednesday morning as votes from outstanding communities like Fall River were counted and the Marine veteran's lead over second-place candidate Jesse Mermell grew to 1,152.

Just about 5 percent of the vote remained unreported before noon on Wednesday, and Auchincloss's campaign said it was still waiting on results from Franklin and Bellingham.

But it was not clear if there were enough votes outstanding for Mermell to close the gap after Fall River reported that she finished fourth in that city with 441 votes to top-vote-winner Auchincloss's 1,157.

With her campaign running neck and neck with Auchincloss, Mermell on Wednesday asked city and town clerks in the Fourth Congressional District to publicly share the status of their ballot counts, including outstanding mail-in and provisional ballots that have yet to be tallied.

Mermell's campaign manager Katie Prisco-Buxbaum wrote a letter to city and town clerks asking their offices to publicly share data that will disclose current results, ballots left to be counted, the number of late ballots that were pulled from drop boxes after 8 p.m. Tuesday night and not counted or still arriving in the mail, and provisional ballots cast in each community.

"We are asking that publicly reported data be more robust to ensure the unique manner of voting is also reflected in a unique reporting which ensures the campaigns, the media and the public are confident in the results before any decision is made on further counting requests," Prisco-Buxbaum wrote.

Mermell and Auchincloss emerged after Tuesday night's in-person primary as the leading contenders to win the Democratic nomination in U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy's district from a field of seven active candidates.

Mermell was a senior advisor in Deval Patrick's administration who left her job as head of the Alliance for Business Leadership to run for Congress.

With 80 percent of the precincts reporting after midnight Tuesday and Mermell leading Auchincloss by 105 votes, both candidates asked for all the votes to be counted before anyone declared victory, though Auchincloss expressed confidence in his position.

Prisco-Buxbaum pointed to Needham as a cautionary tale, which was initially reported as 90 percent counted with 3,766 votes cast, but was updated after midnight to reflect more than 11,000 votes. She said another unidentified community told the Mermell campaign that there were nearly 200 ballots still uncounted from overseas, or provisional ballots.

"We think the answers to these questions are important before any campaign or media outlet declares a victor in this race. And last night’s experience is demonstrative of why we ask," Prisco-Buxbaum told the clerks.

If the final margin of victory is less than half of 1 percent of total votes cast, a candidate may request a district-wide recount.

More than 146,000 votes had been counted so far. In Newton, unofficial results posted online showed Mermell with a 934 vote lead on Auchincloss, but City Clerk David Olsen told the News Service that overseas and mail-in ballots that arrive late Tuesday, but before the 8 p.m. deadline, were still being counted.

Olsen said he didn't know exactly how many ballots had not been tallied but was it was "not many."

"We are getting there," Olsen said.