Broome Board of Elections Office Still Busy

Days after the polls have closed, there's still plenty of activity at the Broome County Board of Election office in downtown Binghamton.

Deputy election commissioner Karen Davis told WNBF News Friday afternoon that workers just finished unpacking the final bag from county polling places.

Davis estimated there were more than a thousand affidavit ballots cast across Broome County. Each of those ballots must be researched to verify that the person who voted was eligible.

Davis said election office personnel worked to compare voting tallies, checking numbers which were reported on election night with the tapes from each voting machine.

Some races remain very close and the outcomes could be changed after affidavit and absentee ballots are included in the totals.

Davis said two Broome County legislature races are among those where relatively few votes now separate the candidates.

In the eighth district, Republican incumbent John Black had a 184 vote lead over Democratic Party challenger Vincent Pasquale. 555 absentee ballots still are to be counted in that race.

In the eleventh district, Democratic challenger Colleen McCabe had a 23 vote lead over Republican incumbent Ron Heebner. At least 327 absentee votes remained to be tallied.

In the town of Union supervisor's race, Republican Rose Sotak had a 155 vote lead over Democratic challenger Jack Cheevers. 1716 absentee ballots still must be counted in that race.

Davis said absentee ballots are to be counted starting at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Vote totals cannot be certified until after November 19.