COUNTING VOTES
Absentee ballots to decide county executive, City Council president races
County officials began the arduous task Monday morning of opening and counting as many as 2,000 absentee ballots that will decide several close Election Night races.
Representatives from many of the undecided races, including Rensselaer County executive, watched in a back room at the county Board of Elections as officials began to scrutinize ballots from the town of North Greenbush, where both the town clerk and Town Board races were too close to call Nov. 7.
In the town clerk’s race, incumbent Republican Kathryn Connolly held a 40-vote lead over Democratic challenger Laurie Gendron, 1,986-1,946, while Republican Deputy Supervisor Joseph Bott III held an eight-vote cushion over Democrat Melissa Anderson, 1,9031,895, for the second of two available Town Board seats. Democrat Mary Frances Sabo won the first available seat with 1,989 votes, while incumbent Republican Michael Masone placed fourth and was ousted from his seat.
Town Supervisor Lou Desso, who was among those observing Monday’s count, said Connolly and Bott each extended their leads by the time paper ballots from North Greenbush’s eight election districts were tallied.
Officials will next begin processing absentee ballots in the city of Troy, where incumbent Republican City Council President Carmella Mantello leads Democratic challenger and county Legislator Gary Pavlic by 40 votes, 3,600-3,560, and District 2 Councilman Mark McGrath only leads Democratic challenger Cindy Barclay by 13 votes, 437-424. That process is expected to begin at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and take about two days to complete.
Officials say it could take as long as two weeks to complete the countywide tally, at which point they would be able to of-
ficially declare a winner in the county executive’s race between Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin, R-Troy, and Democrat Andrea Smyth of East Greenbush. McLaughlin claimed victory on Election Night, but Smyth refused to concede, even though she would need to garner nearly three-quarters of the outstanding ballots to overcome the 949-vote advantage McLaughlin posted on Nov. 7, 19,68518,736.
One other race that may be decided by absentee ballots is the battle for the second of two available seats on the Sand Lake Town Council, where Democrat Virginia Erickson leads Republican Stuart Nippes, 1,489 to 1,447.