WGXC-90.7 FM

Ulster officials baffled by November voter turnout

Jan 22, 2020 1:00 pm
Patricia Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman less than half of the registered voters in Ulster County cast ballots in the November 2019 election, according to county Board of Elections. A total of just under 54,000 people, or 45.2 percent of those eligible, participated, despite early voting and a highly contested race for district attorney. Among those who did vote, 999 left the DA column blank. Democrat David Clegg won that race by only 78 votes. Republican Elections Commissioner Thomas Turco said the number of people who who did not vote in the DA race seemed "extraordinarily high." Democratic Committee Chairman Frank Cardinale said, "Without doing a comparison [to the number of blank ballots in other countywide races], it is striking." County Republican Chairman Roger Rascoe was a little more philosophical about the whole thing. "I don't have an explanation as to why there were so many blanks on the DA race. It's just the nature of elections." Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.