Lorrie Carey is used to close races.
In 2022 and 2014, she won and lost state representative seats by 22 and 9 votes, respectively.
None of her elections have been as close, however, as her three-vote victory in the Boscawen Select Board race on Tuesday.
Carey, the incumbent, beat challenger Loren Martin by a vote total of 118 to 115. The third-place candidate, Jayson Westgate, received 17 votes, more than Carey’s margin of victory.
Martin said Wednesday that she is contemplating asking for a recount. However, she noted that the ballots had already been counted by hand, so she doesn’t expect the total to change.
Assuming the election results stand, Carey will serve her fourth term – and third consecutive – on the three-member board, which she had chaired up until her previous term ended.
“I am really looking forward to redeveloping Commercial Street,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “It has been a long process. I hope to see it to its conclusion.”
Carey said she had a “very useful day” at the polls on Tuesday, hearing from residents about their concerns. The tax burden and the impact of last week’s reduction to the proposed budget for the Merrimack Valley School District dominated discussions, she said.
In a race where party politics seeped in, Carey, a Democrat, lamented what she saw as the growing partisanship of running for local office.
“The minute we open ourselves up to letting national parties control our local dialogue, we’re in trouble,” Carey said.
Martin expressed frustration about the role she feels Westgate played in the result.
“Had he not been on the ballot, those may have been votes that were still against Lorrie,” she said.
Martin, who chairs Boscawen’s building task force and planning board, said she will continue to stay involved in local politics.
“I’ll still be active and asking the tough questions,” she said.
Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.
