Two weeks after the general election, and just days after a recount of early voting ballots, the Onondaga County Board of Elections sat down this week to count the nearly 6,456 absentee ballots submitted this year.
Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said that there were a few notable results that came out of the absentee numbers. First, two different races flipped including one for Geddes Town Council.
“Marcia Ferguson was down on election night, she was down by one vote for town councilor out in Geddes and now she's the head by 36 [votes],” said Czarny. “So that race flipped.”
There was also a proposition to ban marijuana dispensaries in the village of Camillus that originally failed but is now favored.
“The ‘no’ side had a four-vote margin on election night,” he said. “And that switched to a four-vote margin for the ‘yes’ side.”
Because the margin is so thin for that proposition, it will be hand-counted on Monday. Similarly, the Town of Geddes’s proposition to ban marijuana dispensaries only has an eight-vote margin. That’s significantly less than it was on election night according to Czarny.
“The no vote had a lead of well over 100 votes on election night and is down to a lead of eight votes for that in Geddes so that will go to a hand count as well on Monday,” he said.
These aren’t the only races going to a hand count. There are three other races that must be recounted on Monday according to a new state law.
“If any race is within .5% of the margin of victory or 20 votes, we have to do a hand count of all the ballots involved in the race,” said Czarny.
The others are Solvay’s mayoral race, Spafford’s town board race, and Camiillus’ village trustee race.
In Manlius, the absentee ballots solidified results in many contentious races. For Town Supervisor, Democrat John Deer pulled ahead by a final 368 votes. And in the Manlius Town Justice race, the seat flipped in favor of Democrat David Rothschild during a recount, and he now officially won by 284 votes.
All results will be certified by November 24.
