Vote tallies incomplete 3 days after election

Completed vote tallies for Columbia County elections still had not been posted by the county Board of Election at the close of business Friday.

The board’s website listed only the results from ballots cast on Election Day, Nov. 5. Results from the early voting period, Oct. 26 to Nov. 3, were not included.

The Hudson Register Star reported that errors led the Board of Elections to halt its counts about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday. Results of votes that were cast Tuesday

were posted by noon Wednesday, but the early voting numbers remained unreported.

“All of us — staff and additional part-time staff — are working as hard as we can to get those results to you,” county Democratic Elections Commissioner Virginia Martin said in an email to the Freeman just before 2:30 p.m. Friday. “We have very strict controls over the counting and reporting processes, requiring bipartisan signoff each step along the way to ensure the integrity of the ballot count. This takes extra time, and it’s worth it to

make sure we get it right.

“We’re sorry it’s taking longer than usual,” Martin wrote. “We’re making steady progress and will release the results as soon as possible.”

At 5:30 p.m. Friday, the Board of Elections’ website continued to include the message “These results are unofficial and do not include early voting results.”

This was the first year in which early voting was allowed in New York state.

In Ulster County, complete results in a number of key races, including the closely watched contest for district attorney, were unavailable for nearly 15 hours after the polls closed Tuesday night due to a medical emergency at the county Board of Elections office in Kingston that halted the counting of votes.

Ulster County’s final, unofficial results — including the tallies from early voting — were posted on the board’s website just before noon Wednesday.