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ABSENTEE COUNT: DAY TWO
Carole Osterink
ccSCOOP Editor
11-19-09 - 6:30 a.m. - After working into the small hours of Wednesday morning counting the absentee ballots from the Town of Taghkanic, election inspectors—some the same, some new—were back later on Wednesday to resume the count. Counting the absentee ballots in "uncontested" towns—that is, towns in which there were no races whose outcomes would be decided by the absentee votes—began at 10 a.m. The count in "contested" towns, where races could be decided by absentee ballots, began at 2 p.m. By midafternoon, as teams of election inspectors quietly examined envelopes and opened and counted ballots at two other tables in the Board of Supervisors chamber, the focus once again was on the "big table" where lawyers from both sides were scrutinizing absentee ballot applications and the ballot envelopes and challenging ballots.
John Ciampoli was missing from the Republicans' legal team, leaving James Walsh and William Rapoli, Jr. On the Democrats' side of the table, Kathleen O'Keefe and Karen Feldman were both back. The mood at the big table seemed more casual than the night before—and more jocular. Walsh had dispensed with his suit jacket and tie; O'Keefe had shed her jacket. And there was a fair amount of banter—and laughter—as Walsh and O'Keefe took the lead in scrutinizing ballot applications and ballot envelopes. Walsh had reduced his objections to an acronym: QVI—Q for "qualifications," V for "veracity" (of application and of envelope), and I for "incomplete application." "QVI" seemed to be Walsh's most frequent determination, but occasionally, after examining an application and envelope, he would declare "Let 'em vote" or "Let 'er vote."
The subject of scrutiny at the big table were the absentee ballots from the Town of Ancram, where Democratic challenger Art Bassin led incumbent Town Superviser Thomas Dias by 15 votes. From about 2:30 until 5, the paper ballots from Ancram District 1 were examined: 61 absentee ballots and 2 affidavit ballots. Both affidavit ballots were rejected and 40 absentee ballots were challenged, leaving 21 ballots to be counted, and after a half hour break for conferencing, the count began. In Ancram District 1, Bassin picked up an additional 14 votes; Dias picked up 2 votes on the Republican line and 1 on the Conservative line. As the count now stands it is Bassin 331 and Dias 305. |
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Kathleen O'Keefe, attorney for the Democrats, consults with County Democratic Committee Chairman Chris Nolan and Democratic representatives from Ancram. At far left is Democratic candidate for Ancram Town Supervisor Art Bassin. |
Meanwhile, in another "contested" election district, William Hallenbeck, Republican candidate for Supervisor from the Third Ward of Hudson, who was leading incumbent Third Ward Supervisor Joe Finn by 18 votes, made it known to his people that he did not want them to challenge any of the absentee ballots. According to Republican Dick Donovan, the Democrats did not immediately agree to go along with this "no challenge" policy but eventually did. Hudson's Third Ward absentee ballots moved to a side table and were counted at the same time as the unchallenged votes from Ancram 1. Finn picked up 21 votes from the paper ballots, but it proved not enough to win the election. Hallenbeck picked up 7 on the Republican line and 3 on the Independence line, making him the winner by 7 votes: 138 to 131.
Shortly before 6 p.m., after the votes from Ancram 1 had been counted, the participates at the big table, which included Election Commissioners Virginia Martin and Don Kline, decided to call it a day and resume with the counting of Ancram 2, Austerlitz, Claverack, and Stuyvesant beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
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