PROVIDENCE — The Judicial Nominating Commission says it made a mistake when it forwarded the name of East Greenwich lawyer John R. Gowell Jr. to Governor Carcieri as a finalist for a Superior Court judgeship earlier this year.

In a statement read at the commission’s meeting Tuesday night, Chairman Herbert J. Brennan said that it had recently reviewed its records and discovered that Gowell should not have been included as a finalist because he had received only four affirmative votes from the commissioners. State law requires that all names submitted to the governor as finalists for judgeships be approved by at least five members.

The error in tallying the votes was made during a meeting in June when the JNC was considering whom to recommend to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Mark A. Pfeiffer. The commissioners sent five names to the governor to choose from, Gowell’s included.

Carcieri selected his chief of staff, Brian P. Stern, to fill that judgeship but under a law that Carcieri pushed for, if no one had brought the error to light, Gowell could have been selected by the governor to fill another judgeship without having to go through the screening process again. Now, if Gowell wants to pursue a position on the bench, he will have to re-apply and go through the vetting and voting process.

Brennan said the error in tallying the votes for Gowell has been communicated to Carcieri in writing as well as to Gowell. And, Brennan said, that in an effort to try to prevent such mistakes, the commission “has put in place a detailed flow-chart of the voting rules to afford more clarity and reliability to the commission’s voting process…”

tbreton@projo.com