Acushnet’s St. Gelais flips seat from Dem to Rep

By Beth David, Editor

Last week’s election results took a little bit longer to count than usual. The Neighb News had to go to print with some races and ballot questions still not decided. Now, 99% of the votes are in. Domestic mailed-in ballots postmarked by 11/3 had to be in by 11/6. Ballots mailed from outside the US have until 11/13 to arrive and still be counted. So counting cannot be finished until after then. The results need to be certified by 11/18.

According to the Boston Globe, Question 5/State Revenue cap, was too close to call by press time last week. They are now reporting that it passed, 1,325,491 (52.3%) to 1,209,504 (47.7%). Question 7, that would have allowed 5,000 square foot lots state­wide, failed by a narrow margin: 1,288,797 (50.6%) to 1,255,842 (49.4%).

Locally, the numbers for the governor’s race in Fairhaven had the wrong numbers, due to a “formula” error, according to Town Clerk, Elisabeth Horan.

The correct numbers are Gov./Lt. Gov: 3,557 for incum­bents Maura Healey and Kim Driscoll (D), who won statewide; 3,591 for Minogue/ Oliver (R); 291 James/Kittredge (Ind)

Fairhaven cast a total of 7,857 votes out of 13,888 registered voters for a 56.6% turnout. 

In Acushnet, the race for 8th Bristol/Precincts 2 & 3, with Acushnet resident, Jesse St. Gelais (R), challeng­ing Democratic incumbent, Steven Ouellette, had not been called by press time last week. But when the numbers came through, it was a stunning upset by Mr. St. Gelais, who won, 9,006 to 8,547 with 99% of the votes counted by press time this week. 

In Acushnet, it was 1,036 for Mr. Ouellette, and 1,961 for Mr.  St. Gelais. The district includes all of Westport, parts of Acushnet, Fall River, Freetown, and New Bedford. 

Acushnet cast a total of 4725 ballots for a 53% turnout rate.

Both Acushnet and Fairhaven took longer than usual to count votes. Both said it was mostly due to the nine ballot questions. Some people who mailed in ballots did not mail in both pages, complicating things.

In the voting booth on election day, people just took a lot longer to fill out the ballots, leading to lines.

In Acushnet, the lines got long and some people got verbal about it.

Acushnet Town Clerk, Pam Labonte, said she had to get firm with people, and “read them the riot act” when she heard some people were being rude to election workers. 

There was an “explosion” of people in the afternoon. Adding to that, she said, was at least one person who decided to interfere to take control and made things worse. 

Generally, people are in the voting booth for a couple of minutes. She said one poll worker decided to keep track this year and found that some people took almost 20 minutes to fill out the ballots. 

Quite a few people made mistakes, had to get new ballots, and start all over again.

Then, when counting, because of the two-page ballot, workers had to make sure that all the numbers matched. If you had, say, 1,000 people checked in, you should have 2,000 “cards” or pages. 

“It really tested every one of us,” said Ms. Labonte. “It really did.”

This was also the first election when the state allowed more pre-processing of early voting ballots. Clerks could conduct “Advanced Removal” and “Advanced Deposit.”

Both required counting the ballots, checking off who voted, and submit­ting that information to the state website. Acushnet had 1,229 early ballots; Fairhaven had about 3,200.

In Acushnet, they conducted removal, and opted to feed the ballots into the machines on election day. The numbers, of course, still have to match up, when compared against the actual voter list.

In Fairhaven, they opted to do both. That required two memory cards (plus a redundant backup) for each tabulator (the machine you put your ballot in after it is marked). Then, on election night, the early card and the same-day card numbers are added together. Again, the final number must match the number on the voting list. 

Simply put, it just took longer because there were more steps. 

In an interview a few days after the election, Mr. St. Gelais said he felt good after winning. And exhausted, of course. He never counts his chickens before they hatch, though, so he went in being optimistic, but cautious.

“I did the work,” he said, and at the end of the day, if he lost, he would go back to “normal life,” which is working in the family’s insurance business.

He said he was “extremely, extremely moved and grateful” to voters and volunteers, and “very humbled.”

“Our hard work paid off,” he said. “A lot of people were rooting for me.”

He ran as an independent two years ago, and he said that experi­ence helped him this time around.

Mr. St. Gelais said he feels he can be a good voice for Acush­net despite his party being in the minority on Bea­con Hill. There will probably be 25 Republicans to 134 Democrats start­ing in Janu­ary, with one inde­pendent and a couple of races not quite finished counting.

Mr. St. Gelais also pointed out a surprise he got during the campaign. He discovered that his great-great uncle, Joseph Saulnier, held the 8th Bristol seat in the 1950s. Mr. Saulnier’s son, Donald, supported his cousin, “every step of the way.”

Mr. St. Gelais said he knew he had the uncle in politics, but had no idea he represented the 8th Bristol.

He said he felt a push he could not understand on the hard days (knock­ing doors “can be tough”), and feels it might be from his ancestor.

“”It’s wild,” he said, adding he  believed “the man upstairs” was looking out for him.

In a phone interview a few days after the election, Mr. Ouellette said he and the rest of the delegation worked very hard to get the money they got for Acushnet, including about $1 million for the Slocum Street project. He said he also had about a million dollars in bond projects and he was not sure what would happen to that. 

He said maybe he should have brought those things up more often in the campaign, and now he is “very concerned it might slow down.”

“I don’t think Acushnet realized how hard we worked for that money,” said Mr. Ouellette. 

“I’m not a whiner,” he said. “This is what they voted for.”

He added he is just worried that because Mr. St. Gelais is in the minority, and Acushnet is not a big tax producer for the state, that they may lose out.

“There’s so much work to do, and I’m bumming that I don’t get to strive for it.”

“I love my town,” said Mr. Ouellette, noting that Westport is the only municipality that is 100% in the district, and for 30 years it had been a Fall River person representing them. 

At a Veterans event on Saturday in Acushnet (see page 12), all three Acushnet reps were there and spoke: Mark Sylvia, who was re-elected; Mr. Ouellette, and Mr. St. Gelais. The three were friendly with each other and posed for photos with the Neighb News.

Mr. Ouellette gave his card to Mr. St. Gelais, offering to help him get up to speed with the stuff that the public hasn’t seen yet.

“I just want to deliver for my district,” said Mr. St. Gelais.

“He’s gonna have his hands full,” said Mr. Ouellette

Editor’s note: Information for state­wide and district races, and ballot questions came from the Boston Globe website at www.bostonglobe.com/elections/massachusetts/2026/general

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