According to data obtained via Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request from the Columbia County Board of Elections, as of Thursday afternoon:
- 183 voters had returned absentee ballots;
- 65 others had not (yet) returned their ballots;
- 1 voter cast an “affidavit” ballot on Election Day.
None of these have been opened yet. Of those voters who have returned their absentee ballot:
- 102 are Democrats;
- 32 are Republicans;
- 32 are “independents” not affiliated with any party.
- 12 are Independence Party members;
- 3 are Conservatives;
- 1 is a Working Families Party member; and
- 1 is a Green.
That said, party affiliation sometimes isn’t a very reliable predictor of how voters may lean in local elections. In addition:
- 20 of these ballots were picked up and delivered to voters by Linda Mussmann, who was circulating a sample ballot for Hallenbeck on Election Day; and
- 4 ballots were “carried” by former Democratic alderman Lyle Shook, also believed to be a Hallenbeck supporter.
Considering that ballots had to be postmarked by Monday, and the U.S. mails generally arrive within 1-3 days even across the continental U.S., it doesn’t seem likely that very many more (if any) ballots will be received. The BOE does, however, have to wait 10 days, especially to allow any overseas military ballots to come in.
Since the Board was closed today for Veterans Day, no Friday update was available. This site has also been unable (due to a fight instigated by Republicans over where to store the ballots) to verify the Board’s hand-written machine tallies which indicate a slim 27-vote lead for Bill Hallenbeck over Nick Haddad for Mayor. Presumably on Monday, the actual printouts from the electronic vote scanners will be available for inspection. And the Columbia County Board, mainly thanks to Virginia Martin, has a practice of also hand-counting all machine-counted votes, a laborious process but one essential to protecting the integrity of all of our votes.
The Board is expected to begin processing absentee ballots on Friday the 18th, but it is not certain whether they’ll handle towns alphabetically, or do the non-controversial ones first, or address the candidates who are still in suspense first (as in Hudson and Taghkanic). If they don’t get to those towns on the 18th, the wait could extend into the following week.
Plus there is a potential for court challenges, conceivably meaning that some places might not know the identity of their new Mayor or Town Board members until WinterWalk, or later.
