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Absentee ballots can make the difference in tight local races

By HILARY LANE

Story Created: Nov 9, 2011 at 2:14 PM EDT

Story Updated: Nov 9, 2011 at 2:14 PM EDT

ONEIDA COUNTY, N.Y. (WKTV) - The race for mayor of Rome and mayor of Utica are extremely tight races and with hundreds of absentee ballots not yet counted, it could be those votes that determine the winners of these elections.

As of Tuesday night, Joe Fusco is leading the Rome mayoral race over Jim Brown by 191 votes. However, there are 388 absentee ballots that have been sent out in the Rome area and 280 have already been received at the Board of Elections as Wednesday morning.

In the Utica mayoral race, Robert Palmieri is leading over Michael Cerminaro by 391 votes. The Board of Elections tells us 990 absentee ballots have been sent out
and 720 have been received back.

However, election law states that the absentee ballots can not be counted until next Wednesday.

"Right now our absentees are all accounted for," says Pamela Mandryck, Republican Election Commissioner. "We know exactly how many went out, how many we have received, they are all collated by town or district. We are ready to start reading but need to wait until the week is up."

Even though there are hundreds of absentee ballots to count next week, the Board of Elections tells us those absentee votes typically follow the same trend as voters on election day. However, we will not know official results until next Wednesday.