County Exec. Byrne Claims Victory; Yarris Awaits Absentees

By Holly Crocco

With more than 42,000 ballots cast in the race for Putnam County executive, as of Friday, there was only a 458 vote difference between incumbent Republican Kevin Byrne, with 20,239 votes, and Democratic challenger Brett Yarris, with 19,781 votes. That’s 47.82 to 46.74 percent.

Conservative candidate Tatiana Brahimi had 2,289 votes, or 5 percent. There were also 10 write-ins.

According to the Putnam County Board of Elections, there were more than 750 outstanding absentee ballots left to be received and tabulated as of Friday evening. Absentee ballots need to be postmarked by Nov. 3 to be counted, and received by Nov. 10.

“We count them daily,” said Democratic Elections Commissioner Cathy Croft. “So it’s a rolling canvas.”

There are also more than 400 affidavit ballots outstanding. Croft said the BOE had originally planned to tabulate those Monday, but that may take place Tuesday.

Affidavit ballots are issued when a voter’s eligibility cannot be immediately verified – such as when their name is missing from the poll book or their registration information is inconsistent. They require the voter to sign a sworn statement affirming eligibility, and election officials later review the ballot to determine whether it should be counted.

Croft said the area post offices have been making two trips a day to deliver ballots to the BOE’s Carmel office. “We open them every day, scan them every day, and upload the results to our website every day,” she said.

When asked about overall voter turnout, the commissioner replied, “Oh, God … a lot!”

There are 74,104 active voters registered in Putnam County. For this election, there were 39,158 in-person votes cast (25,134 who voted on Election Day and 14,024 who voted early) as well as a total of 4,669 absentee ballots requested.

That’s more than half the active voters registered who cast a ballot.

While Croft said that more Democrats typically early vote and use mail ballots, she also said all the absentee ballots that are requested don’t come back.

This is one of the reasons Byrne has embraced the lead.

Of the 1,164 absentee ballots that were outstanding as of election night, about 300 were received and tabulated Wednesday, and that number dropped off greatly – down to about 40 by Friday.

“An overwhelming majority that will come in have been counted already,” said Byrne.

He said that if you look at the numbers, they show that Yarris earned more than 1,000 less votes than Democratic Congresswoman-Elect Cait Conley did, and more than 300 fewer votes than Democratic County Coroner-Elect Michael Strauss.

“There’s only one reason for that – they voted for me,” Byrne said of the numbers and the voters they represent. “So I had a large amount of voters across Putnam County cross party lines and vote for me… That’s why we won. We are very confident with where we are.”

Byrne said the less than 1 percent that separates him from Yarris is less than most people are used to seeing – but that’s what happens when you have multiple candidates.

“There’s really not a statistical path for them (the Yarris campaign) winning,” said Byrne, noting that, if it ends up extremely close, either side could request a recount.

“We have definitely shown that we overcame more obstacles that you could throw at a candidate for county executive, ever,” he said, referring to having not only a Democratic opponent but also a Conservative one, as well as political mailings that ended up in the courtroom, and an overall negative local political climate. “With everything that was thrown at us, this speaks volumes… This is by far the most expensive race this county has seen.”

Yarris, however, is not backing down.

“This race is too close to call,” he said Wednesday. “We want to make sure every vote counts… We expect a huge number dump on Monday, and that will give us an idea if there is a path to victory.”

Yarris said his campaign also saw a lot of crossover votes from Republicans and Conservatives, which – coupled with the fact that more Democrats vote by mail – means the absentee ballots are unpredictable.

“If the math wasn’t there, we would humbly concede,” he said, adding, “I have full faith in the Board of Elections. Both our Democratic and Republican commissioners are doing a hell of a job.”

There has not been a Democratic county executive since the county charter was established in 1977 and Democrat David Bruen served. Prior to that, it was governed by a board of supervisors.

Since Bruen, it’s been Republicans Peter Alexanderson and Robert Bondi, followed by Independent Paul Eldridge who filled in for a year until Republican MaryEllen Odell was elected, followed by Byrne.

Check the BOE results at www.putnamcountyny.gov for daily updates to vote tallies.