Several races in Chautauqua County, including the Dunkirk Mayoral election and Legislative District 1 seat, are coming down to absentee ballots.
Chautauqua County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner Brian Abram said in the Dunkirk race, Democratic candidate Kate Wdowiasz has an unofficial total of 1,221 votes to Republican candidate David Damico‘s 1,164. He said there are just 57 votes separating them with 117 absentees votes still to be tallied.
In Legislative District 1, which covers part of the city and town of Dunkirk, Republican incumbent Kevin Muldowney has just ten more votes than his Democratic challenger Marcus Buchanan.
Abram said that the number of absentees is larger than difference in votes, “So, we’re going to be hand counting that one and adding all the absentees and affidavits that can be considered to be put into the total. And we are very, very confident that we’ll be needing to hand count that one at the end of the day.”
In Celoron, one of the village trustees seats had no candidate petition to run for office. Abram said that race will be decided by tallying the seven write-in votes received.
There are four other races in the county that will be determined by absentee count. This includes a seat on the Dunkirk Town Council, a seat on the Ellington Town Council, a Cassadaga trustee seat, and the Ripley Highway Superintendent position.
Abram added that Monday, November 20 is the last day that absentee and military ballots can arrive via mail to be included in the final vote tallies. He said the official winners of the undecided races should be known after those ballots are tallied up and added with any affidavit ballots submitted on election day.
Abram said less than 30% of registered voters took part in the 2023 general election.
For election results, visit votechautauqua.com
Leave a Reply