The 102nd District Assembly race remains too close to call and will be until at least 9am Tuesday, when Schoharie County counts its outstanding absentee and military ballots.
And even then, the results will be unofficial until state Board of elections Commissioners meet in June to certify them, spokesman John O’Donnell said Monday.
That leaves the Assembly a couple of options.
If, looking at unofficial returns, the winner seems apparent, legislators could send Elections commissioners a letter asking them for information on the likely winner and then seat that person.
But if returns remain close—or if they’re being challenged in court, Mr. O’Donnell said—they can also wait.
“Ninety nine percent of the time, they [unofficial results] don’t change,” he said.
But there’s a timetable and a procedure for tallying absentee and military ballots before they’re official.
In voting last Tuesday, Republican Chris Tague captured 45.87 percent of the votes with Democrat Aidan O’Connor Jr. getting 44.32 percent and independent Wes Laraway, 9.71 percent.
With the difference between Mr. Tague and Mr. O’Connor just 288 votes, Mr. Connor isn’t conceding, instead waiting till the State Board of Elections verifies results from the seven counties in the 102nd.
Either way, both Mr. O’Connor, a Greene County legislator, and Mr. Tague, Schoharie supervisor until the Assembly winner is confirmed, have both said they’ll be running again for the seat in November.
It will be a short session for whover the winner is; the Assembly session ends Wednesday. June 20.
The 102nd includes all of Schoharie and Greene Counties; and parts of Otsego, Delaware, Albany, Ulster, and Columbia Counties.
Schoharie County Deputy Commissioner Rich Shultes said Friday that with the last day for military ballots to arrive May 7, they’ll be counting both absentee and military ballots the morning of the 8th.
“A lot of places start earlier, but we normally wait a day,” he said.
Schoharie County mailed out 530 absentee and military ballots, Mr. Shultes said.
As of Friday, 387 had been returned and of those, 363 were able to be counted; some were damaged in transit.
Absentee ballots needed to be postmarked by April 23—the day before the special election—and returned by yesterday, the 1st.
The last day for military ballots to arrive is May 7.
Greene County Board of Elections began counting absentee ballots yesterday, Tuesday, and said they’ll add any military ballots—if any come in before the deadline—to that number.
Once all of the ballots are counted, they’ll be forwarded to the State board of Elections for aggregation, verification, and publication.
If Mr. Tague wins the election, it will be up to the Schoharie Town Board to appoint someone to replace him as supervisor.
Republican Councilman Alan Tavenner is the town’s deputy supervisor and Mr. Tague’s likely successor.


• • •


Election night, Mr. Tague won both Schoharie and Greene Counties as well as Columbia and Otsego.
Mr. O’Connor won Albany, Delaware, and Ulster Counties.
Unofficial county results follow:
• Albany: O’Connor, 684; Tague, 658; Laraway, 73.
• Columbia: O’Connor, 281; Tague, 302; Laraway, 2.
• Delaware: O’Connor, 675; Tague, 598; Laraway, 60.
• Greene: O’Connor, 3,516; Tague, 3,609; Laraway, 114.
• Otsego—O’Connor, 255; Tague 278; Laraway, 1.
• Schoharie—O’Connor, 1,557; Tague, 2,383; Laraway, 1,507.
• Ulster: O’Connor, 1,291; Tague, 719; Laraway, 17.