County begins counting ballots
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Board of Elections officials on Wednesday conducted a livestream vote count of mailed-in and absentee ballots, which included the Saugerties race for town justice.
In that race, there were 1,391 ballots to be counted for five party primaries featuring incumbent Claudia Andreassen and challenger Stanley O’Dell.
“It will probably take the better part of two days,” county elections Democratic Commissioner Ashley Dittus said.
Prior to the start of counting, Dittus had correctly forecast that there would be challenges, which slowed counts as the representatives for the candidates inspected the ballots.
Information was not immediately available on where the races had changed from in-person voting that had the Democratic line with 594 votes for Andreassen and 200 for O’Dell, Working Families with 5 votes for O’Dell and 1 for Andreassen, Green Party with 7 votes for Andreassen and 1 for O’Dell, Liber
tarian with 1 vote for O’Dell, none for Andreassen, and 4 write-in votes; and Independence with 34 votes for O’Dell and 21 for Andreassen.
The elections board offices was also used to count ballots for the Democratic presidential primary, with information on the number of ballots not immediately available.
Ballots for the Republican
primary to determine a 19th Congressional District candidate to run against incumbent Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, were counted in a conference room at the county’s Golden Hill Complex. Dittus said there were 2,486 ballots returned in Ulster County for that race and was also expected to take two days to complete.
In-person voting for the 19th Congressional District ended last week with Ola Hawatmeh, of Pleasant Valley, leading 5,502-5,027 over Kyle Van De Water, of Millbrook.