Recount at the Board of Elections

SULLIVAN — A little more than four weeks after Election Day the Sullivan County Board of Elections (SCBOE) released their officially certified results on the county website on Wednesday.

As of late Thursday morning, however, those results had been taken down.

Based on a Sullivan County Democrat inquiry, the Board of Elections is looking into a discrepancy regarding the Neversink Town Justice race results.

According to the certified results that were taken down on Thursday, Keri-Ann Poley, running on the Democratic and Conservative Party lines, defeated Republican candidate Michael Scagnelli by 656 votes to 307.

However, according to unofficial results released by the SCBOE on November 3, Scagnelli was leading Poley with 515 votes to 396.

“Based on [The Democrat’s] inquiry from [Wednesday], the Board is conducting the necessary research and recounting the results,” said Sullivan County Communications Director Dan Hust. “The results will be posted when that process is complete.”

The official county-wide results included 1,920 absentee ballots in addition to the early and in-person voting numbers that were included in the unofficial results released earlier this month.

As the Democrat reported on November 5, some races were too close to call while absentee votes were still pending.

Here is the latest run down on where those races now stand according to the official election results released by the Sullivan County Board of Elections on Wednesday. (with the exception of Fallsburg)

Cochecton

In the town of Cochecton there were two open seats up for grabs on the town council.

Incumbent Sean Nearing was re-elected with 248 votes, but the winner in the other seat was unclear with absentee votes still to be counted.

Political newcomer John Nober ultimately defeated challenger Kambri Crews by 16 votes, with the final count coming down to 229 to 213, respectively.

Fallsburg

Official election results have still not been released for the Town of Fallsburg as of press time on Thursday. The Sullivan County Board of Elections is continuing to count some 990 absentee ballots that were cast, more than enough to determine the outcome for town supervisor and town council seats.

According to the unofficial results by the Sullivan County Board of Elections posted on November 3. Incumbent Supervisor Steven Vegliante had received 1,102 votes (61.22 percent), while challenger Katherine Rappaport, who is running on the Preserve Sullivan party line, has only received 696 votes (38.67 percent).

Further unofficial results indicated that Incumbent Nathan Steingart appeared to be re-elected with 1,011 votes followed by Michael Bensimon with 940 votes, Sean Wall-Carty with 745 votes and Miranda Behan with 604 votes (18.26 percent).

Highland

The race for Highland Town Supervisor was among the closest in the county.

Incumbent Jeff Haas was leading challenger John Pizzolato by 25 votes after early and in-person voting was accounted for.

As the Democrat reported on November 19, Pizzolato ultimately conceded once absentee votes were tallied, delivering a reelection victory to Haas.

The official results ended with 412 votes for Haas to 392 for Pizzolato.

In a surprising twist in the race for Highland town council, two candidates are tied for one seat. Laura Burrell and Christopher Tambini both received 388 votes.

Several years ago in the Town of Delaware, a tied race for a council seat was decided by the town board.

Thompson

As the Democrat reported on November 19, William Rieber Jr. will be reelected to another term after Councilman Scott Mace conceded.

According to Rieber, after votes were re-canvassed, “errors were found in the original reporting of the votes cast.”

Rieber received 1,286 votes which are 402 more votes than Councilman Mace; according to Rieber, Mace received 884 votes.

The Democrat reached out to the Sullivan County Board of Elections on what caused the error but did not hear back by press time.

Rieber went to say, “This is a huge win and reinvigorates my faith in the good people of the Town of Thompson and validates the hard work our team and I have put in over the past eight years, achieving measurable results. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the Democratic and Conservative endorsements and the significant support I received from my Republican friends. I look forward to a very busy agenda moving Thompson forward over the next two years.”

In the race for Town Justice, Richard Baum ultimately defeated incumbent Martin Miller by 1,098 to 1,009 votes.

Mamakating

In the Town of Mamakating, political newcomer Michael Robbins maintained his lead over incumbent Town Supervisor Janet Lybolt.

Robbins was elected with 1,207 votes to Lybolt’s 1,066.

In the race for town council, Ward 1, John Rufer, Jr. defeated Eileen Rogers with 248 votes to 180.

In the race for town council, Ward 2, Gary Forthoffer beat Graham Vest with 188 votes to 113.

In the race for town council, Ward 3, incumbent councilman John Lacey had been leading challenger Matthew Mordas with 184 to 183. Once absentee votes were counted, Mordas pulled off a victory with the final count being 196 to 189, respectively.

In the race for town council, Ward 4, Peter Goodman ultimately won with 207 votes over Ralph Tunno, II with 156 votes.

In the race for town council, Ward 5, Thomas Morrow won with 193 votes over Joseph Marshall with 162 votes.

In the race for town council, Ward 6, Tyler Wood maintained a strong lead over John Crudo, Jr, with the final result of being 257 votes to 107.