Last night I left the GOP election night headquarters a little too early. When I returned home I saw a news station had called the race for Maffei. (I can’t recall which one it was, as I was switching around quite a bit.) I flipped over to YNN and caught part of Dan Maffei’s speech. I missed the part when he said “when all votes are counted.” I heard “I will be your next Congressman.” Talk about bad timing.
As things stand, Maffei leads by a little less than three thousand votes. There are about 10,000 absentee ballots to be counted.
Sam Foster adds:
Wayne County is the area holding up the show. Only 60% of the precincts have reported so far. This is by far the most Republican portion of the district and no doubt, voters will be leaning towards Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle. The question is, by how much.
Republicans faired well in a tough congressional atmosphere. The state-wide candidates performed poorly even in the more conservative Upstate NY. So far, Andrew Cuomo is leading Wayne County by 8 points. Republican Joe DioGuardi, running in a special election for US Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand has a small 1% lead. Clearly, Ann Marie will get no help from the top of the ticket.
If nearby districts are indications for NY-25, then Ann Marie Buerkle has a good shot. Both NY-29 and NY-24 switched their blue colors for red and despite poor top of the ticket performance in those districts.
I heard there was a problem with the machines in Wayne County.
I think it will be a while before a winner is declared in NY25. Keep your fingers crossed!
Update: Be sure to follow the link to Sam Foster for his updates. It looks like the Wayne County tallies will be released today at 4 PM. I expect Maffei’s link to shrink at least a little bit. Also, the Board of Elections reports that over 11,000 absentee ballots were sent out and more than 8,000 were returned.
Tags: ann marie buerkle, Dan Maffei, NY25, too close to call
Wow! Nerve-wracking. I hope military ballots are in and will be counted.
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Maffei is an absolute disgrace. How is it that people in this area are so blind to vote for someone like Maffei- the guy is a socialist and clearly can’t take the heat….. try challenging him on anything and he looks and sounds as if he is going to cry….. don’t believe me just search for him on youtube to find the infamous video of him scolding his constituents and shaking his finger at them.
The Post Standard and Marie Morelli (mmorelli@syracuse.com, 315-470-2220) DISGUST ME.
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I have just submitted the below inquiry to the NY Dept of State: http://www.dos.state.ny.us/about/contact.asp
Hello,
I would like to know what the Department of State is doing about Military Absentee Ballots possibly not counting towards the November 2, 2010 election. This is of particular importance to the NY-25 Congressional election.
Thank you,
Frank
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This one will be decided by absentee ballots (read Military personnel overseas) in the end. Keep an eye on the local voter board to make sure they do not play games with these ballots!
Published: Wednesday, November 03, 2010, 5:47 PM
Updated: Wednesday, November 03, 2010, 5:58 PM
Mark Weiner / The Post-Standard
Syracuse, NY — Republican Ann Marie Buerkle surged ahead of U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei by 659 votes this afternoon in the 25th Congressional District race after Wayne County reported its unofficial results.
Buerkle sealed her victory in the western part of the district with a convincing win in Wayne County, trouncing Maffei 15,429 (63 percent) to 9,191 (37 percent), according to returns Wayne County released at about 5:30 p.m.
Before Wayne County reported its results — more than 20 hours after polls closed — Maffei held on to a slim lead of about 5,600 votes from the other three counties in the district.
Now the two candidates are separated by 659 votes, meaning absentee ballots will decide the election over the next two weeks.
Maffei entered the day with 89,744 votes (52 percent) to Buerkle’s 84,165 votes (48 percent), according to unofficial election returns compiled by The Post-Standard.
After Wayne County reported, the new vote total is 99,594 or 50.17 percent for Buerkle and 98,935 or 49.83 percent for Maffei.
Wayne County did not report results Tuesday night because of delays in reporting from most of its precincts.
Officials at the Wayne County Board of Elections blamed the delay on new system where voting machines and printouts of their results were picked up by trucks before inspectors could phone in results.
Jack Bailey, the county’s Democratic elections commissioner, said only 17 of the 67 precincts were able to phone in results Tuesday night. He said many inspectors received busy signals when they tried to get through one of the six phone lines to the Wayne County Board of Elections.
Thanks,
Paul
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I know, I just did a new post.
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