From E. Benjamin Andrews "History of the United States," 1912. Copyright expired.

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, NY — The Board of Elections’ review of Nov. 3 ballots has revealed that totals in the Lima election were reported incorrectly, according to Election Commissioner Susan Guenther.

“When the election inspectors sent the information in to us on Tuesday evening, they had made an error in their totals,” Guenther elaborated.

“It was a human error. When the inspectors were reading the numbers from the paper from the back of the voting machine, they didn’t read them correctly,” Guenther advised.

“By the end of the day, when the inspectors have been at the polls for 16 hours, it is possible for a mistake to occur.”

The mistakes will make the contested election for justice closer than had been reported in the unofficial results, but is not expected to affect the outcome.

It appears that, even with the corrected numbers, Republicans Harold Harris and Elvira Luhowy will secure the seats over Democrat Gregory McCaffrey, Guenther said.

The unofficial figures reported election evening had Luhowy with 587, Harris 529 and McCaffrey 420. The new count has given justice candidate Greg McCaffrey 13 additional votes on his independent “law and order” line and 80 additional votes on the Democratic line, for a new total of 513, placing McCaffrey just 16 votes behind Harris’ total. The added independent votes were unreported from Election District No. 2 and the added Democratic votes were unreported from Election District No. 3.

It is standard practice for the election commissioners to review all statements of canvass (totals prepared by the election inspectors from the machine and absentee numbers) and voting machine paperwork from every election district polling place consequent to an election “to make sure everything was noted correctly and reported correctly,” Guenther explains. The process is presently underway, checking for all townships in alphabetical order.

After the checking is complete, the commissioners themselves will sign off on the results, certifying that they are factual.

Springwater council seat uncertain

Besides checking the election evening results, the commissioners also include late arriving absentee votes and valid affidavit votes when the official tallies are announced.

Affidavit votes are those cast by persons whose names are not registered in the poll book. On a vote-by-vote basis, considering residency and other requirements stated in election law, the commissioners make a determination as to whether particular affidavit votes should or should not count. (If commissioners disagree — which seldom happens — the tie goes in favor of the voter.)

In the unofficial tally the first Springwater council seat was well secured by Larry Gnau with 243 votes. However, in the contest for the second seat, Carolyn Tinney and Jim Bowers are separated by a single vote, 184-to-183. Still-to-be-counted absentee or affidavit ballots could possibly flip the result.

Absentee ballots needed to be postmarked no latter than Nov. 2, the day before the election. The Board of Elections will receive absentee ballots until a deadline of Nov. 12. The grace period is allowed for receiving the mail, particularly in view of overseas absentee ballots sent by military personnel.

This year’s unusual elimination of Hatch Act causalities and introduction of replacements on the North Dansville and Groveland ballots took place too late to be included in the absentee ballots. Any votes for the causalities, George Sisak in North Dansville and Kevin Niedermaier in Groveland, will simply not be counted.

“Any absentee voter who selects those individuals will lose their vote,” Guenther confirmed. Similarly, the replacements, John Driscoll in Groveland and Lynn Reagle in North Dansville, have been precluded from receiving absentee votes, unless the voter was aware of the situation and choose to write in the replacement.

Official election results will be released after all the town elections have been reviewed and absentee and affidavit votes tallied.

Tagged as: Board of Elections, recount