Aliya Schneider is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Columbia County Board of Elections has announced the votes cast in the Democratic primaries last month have been tallied, but the results are not yet official. “We wouldn’t expect anything to change but we have to go through to make sure,” Democratic Commissioner Kenneth Dow said July 1. “It’s unofficial until we go through all of the verification steps that are required.” The board was scheduled to audit randomly selected machines July 1, re-canvass the results to make sure all the calculations are accurate on July 6, and hand count close results by July 8. The official results should be ready that night. The Hudson 5th Ward Common Council race will be hand-counted since it was so close. Incumbent Dominic Merante currently leads challenger Rebecca Borrer; a second challenger, Vicky Daskaloudi, has the lead with 75 votes. If nothing changes with the hand count, Merante and Daskaloudi will be on the Democratic line in the general election and Borrer will be on the Working Families Party line. Mark Bodnar received 31 votes and his name will not appear on the ballot in the general election. In the 2nd Ward council race, the Democrats will be represented by incumbent Dewan Sarowar and challenger Mohammed Rony in November. In the city Treasurer primary, Incumbent Heather Campbell has the lead over challenger Michael Hofmann, by 181 votes. Hofmann will be on the Working Families Party line in the general election. In the race for 2nd Ward Supervisor, incumbent Abdus Miah [ME-yah] has the lead over challenger Tiffany Garriga [GAER-ee-guh] by 83 votes. Garriga will challenge Miah on the Working Families Party line in November. In Hillsdale, Joanna Virello and incumbent Thomas Carty Jr. unofficially won the two town board seats on the Democratic line, besting ncumbent Gillian Sims-Elster. Sims-Elster is considering a write-in campaign for the general election. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.