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Every single vote counts in Berne election
Nov 16, 2017 3:23 pm
H. Rose Schneider reports in The Altamont Enterprise that just one vote separates town council candidates Frank Brady and Joel Willsey in Berne's election, and local Republicans are fighting to keep two ballots uncounted. After counting the absentee ballots, GOP-backed town council candidate Frank Brady is one vote ahead of Democratic candidate Joel Willsey, but two absentee ballots have not been counted. Democratic chairman Gerald O’Malley, an incumbent elected again as town tax collector, delivered ten votes to the elections office. New York State law allows a voter to designate someone to pick up and drop off a ballot, but, in Albany County, a judge's ruling years ago, now expired, says only a maximum of eight absentee ballots may be brought in by one person. Rachel Bledi, the Republican Commissioner of the county’s board of elections, says the Albany County Board of Elections will count these other two votes in three business days unless the Republican party files a lawsuit. If they do, a judge will decide whether the two voters get to vote in the election. “We’re definitely going to contest it,” Highway Superintendent and GOP Chairman Randy Bashwinger said. Read the full story in The Altamont Enterprise.