Two state Senate races and one Assembly race in central New York remain too close to call after all in-person ballots have been counted, and with tens of thousands of absentee ballots to be counted, it may be another week before a winner is declared.
In a surprise, Democrat Rachel May leads her Republican challenger Sam Rodgers by just 134 votes. But with more than 20,000 absentee ballots left to count in the 53rd district, and those ballots nearly 2-to-1 favoring Democrats, it’s likely that May will prevail.
Democrat John Mannion, who lost an election for the 50th district state Senate seat two years ago, trails Republican Angi Renna by about 5,000 votes. Renna says it's still early, but she's confident.
“It may be too soon to call any victories yet, understanding there are absentee ballots out there,” Renna said. “But right now I feel really good about those numbers.”
There are about 36,000 absentee ballots left to count, and they also go 2-1 in favor of Democratic voters. Mannion said he's also confident the count will go his way.
“We feel good,” Mannion said. “We want to make sure that every vote is counted and every vote is going to be counted. We worked really hard for a long time, and we’re optimistic.”
Central New York Assemblyman Al Stirpe trails his Republican challenger Mark Venesky by 1,038 votes. But with about 19,000 absentee ballots to count, and again, a majority coming from Democratic voters, Stirpe is likely to eke out a win.
Absentee ballots in Onondaga County will be counted starting Monday.
Get more results from races from around central and northern New York
