Finally, election results are final

11/24/2015

By Jim Poole

Three weeks after the general election, it's official:
Nancy Van Deusen is the new Cobleskill village trustee.
Ms. Van Deusen waged a last-minute write-in campaign to win the seat.
The Schoharie County Board of Elections finished tallying the write-in, absentee and military ballots from the election late last week.
There were two Cobleskill village trustee seats on the November 3 ballot, but only incumbent Kathleen Johnson chose to run. Incumbent Tim Snyder did not seek re-election.
Learning there was a empty slot on the ballot only Election Day morning, Ms. Van Deusen and her husband, Sandy MacKay, called friends to vote for her.
And they did. Ms. Van Deusen got 23 write-ins. Second was Rich Cooper, with 14 votes. Fourteen others received one or two votes.
In other races that were close and might have been decided by write-ins, absentee and military ballots:
•Incumbent Mary Tillapaugh and newcomer John Leavitt won council seats in Carlisle. Ms. Tillapaugh had 247 votes, and Mr. Leavitt, 235. Mick Bello had 220, and Deb Mears received 218.
•In Fulton, Dawn Skowfoe had a two-vote lead over Nichole Singer for town clerk on Election Day. The final tally shows Ms. Skowfoe with 203 votes and Ms. Singer with 197.
•In Wright, Lynn Herzog and Chris Claus won council seats with 263 and 258 votes, respectively. Karl Remmers was a very close third with 257 votes.