Today is Election Day.
In the City of Jamestown, incumbent Democratic Mayor Eddie Sundquist is facing Republican challenger Kim Ecklund.
Sundquist is aiming at winning a second term. Ecklund has served as a City Council At Large member for nearly 20 years and is the chair of Council’s Finance Committee.
All Jamestown City Council seats are on the ballot.
In Ward 1, incumbent Republican Brent Sheldon faces Democrat Travis Knight.
In Ward 3, it’s a rematch between incumbent Democrat Regina Brackman and Republican Robert Reedy. In the 2021 elections, Brackman won by just six votes following a hand count of absentee and provisional affadavit ballots.
In Ward 4, incumbent Democrat Marie Carrubba is running against Republican Joe Paterniti.
In Ward 5, incumbent Republican Bill Reynolds is facing Democrat Kaycee Colburn.
And in Ward 6, incumbent Republican Andrew Faulkner is going up against Democrat Vanessa Weinert.
There are four candidates running for the three At-Large seats. Incumbent Republicans Randy Daversa and Jeff Russell are running for re-election as well as Republican Russ Bonfiglio. Democrat Alyssa Porter is also running. Democrat Isaiah Rashad‘s name will appear on the ballot but he announced he was stepping down from campaigning in September.
All 19 County Legislature seats are on the ballot.
In Jamestown, the contested races include
District 9 between incumbent Democrat Jorge “Billy” Torres against Republican Phillip Landy.
In District 10, incumbent Republican Jamie Gustafson faces Democrat Julie Jackson-Forsberg.
The District 11 race has become somewhat of a biannual match up of incumbent Republican Dave Wilfong against Democrat Bob Whitney.
District 12 has incumbent Republican Elisabeth Rankin against former City Court Judge and Democrat Fred Larson.
And in District 13, incumbent Democrat Tom Nelson faces Republican Joseph Tickle.
There are also 2 propositions located on the back of the ballot.
Proposal 1 would eliminate the constitutional debt limit for small city school districts, which is defined as any school district partly or fully within a city with less than 125,000 inhabitants. Currently, the debt limit is set at 5% of the average total value of property tax rolls for the preceding five years within the district.
Proposal 2 would extend for 10 years an existing constitutional provision regarding indebtedness for the construction and maintenance of sewage facilities. Under the state constitution, state municipalities have a limit on how much debt can be incurred. The percentage varies by municipality. With the approval of Amendment 5 in 1963, debt incurred from the construction or improvement of sewage facilities was exempt from this constitutional debt limit. An extension of the amendment was approved by voters an additional five times every 10 years.
Polls are open today from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. in Chautauqua County.
Only four percent of registered voters participated in early voting in Chautauqua County.
Chautauqua County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner Brian Abram said 3,588 people voted between October 28 and November 5, “Broken down by the winner, always the most popular site seems to be the Fair Grounds in Dunkirk with a little over 1,700 (votes). The (Chautauqua) Mall had just over 1,000 at 1,022. The Jackson Center in Jamestown was 644 and here at the Board of Elections in Mayville we entertained 210 voters.”
Abram said there are roughly 80,000 registered voters in the County. While he did not have exact figures, he said Democrats seem to take advantage of early voting moreso than Republicans or other parties. Abram said this has held true for the five years that early voting has been in place in New York State.
For all of WRFA’s Election coverage, visit wrfalp.com/election-2023
For voting information, including sample ballots and voting locations, visit VoteChautauqua.com
We’ll have Election Night coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. tonight on 107.9 WRFA-LP.
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