11/08/07 - Homer race awaits absentee count

Ballots will start being counted Tuesday in legislative race with 7-vote margin

Joe McIntyre/staff photographer
Board of Elections senior clerk Sandra Harrington validates election numbers and voter information this morning. The Board of Elections will count absentee ballots beginning Tuesday, which will decide a legislative race in Homer’s 11th District between Democratic incumbent Steve Dafoe and Republican James Miller. Dafoe has a seven-vote lead. The Virgil supervisor race will also depend on the absentee count.

(As Published by Cortland Standard, Ida Pease Reporting)

Absentee ballots in Cortland County will help decide the winner of a third state Supreme Court justice seat, and absentee ballots will settle at least two local races, one for a county legislator in Homer and the other for Virgil supervisor.

The county Board of Elections will start counting the ballots Tuesday.

The close local races are between incumbent Democrat Legislator Steve Dafoe in Homer’s District 11 and his challenger, Republican James Miller, and between Virgil supervisor candidates Democrat Craig Umbehauer and Republican John Kaminski.

The Homer race will decide which party controls the Legislature. Dafoe has a seven-vote lead and Democrats would have a one-seat majority if he wins, holding 10 seats and the Republicans nine. Dafoe has 210 votes and Miller 203.

There were 51 absentee ballots sent to residents in District 11 and 38 of those had been returned to the Board of Elections as of Wednesday. There were 27 absentee ballots sent out in Virgil and 17 of them had been returned, according to the county Board of Elections.

In the Virgil race, nine votes separate the candidates, with Umbehauer leading in an unofficial tally of 344 to 335.

In the justice race, absentee ballots from 10 counties will have to be added to tallies. The race is close between third-place justice candidate Joseph Fazzary of Schuyler County and Molly Fitzgerald of Binghamton who is in fourth place. The vote is currently 52,112 to 51,587.

Of the 724 total absentee ballots mailed out across the county, 508 had been returned as of Wednesday. The remaining must arrive by Tuesday and must have a postmark of no later than Nov. 5.

“It takes a few days,” said Sandy Harrington, of the process of counting the votes.

Republican Election Commissioner Robert Howe said the votes would probably be counted by numerical district. Harrington said votes in the close races are usually counted first.

A counting schedule would be set before Tuesday, Howe said, noting that sometimes citizens or candidates want to come in to observe the counting, which is open the public.

Election Commissioner Bill Wood refused to comment.