We stayed up late on November 8 to cover election returns live on the internet and on the radio. The radio portion of the program was our special hour-long election edition of the Watershed Post Half-Hour News Hour, which aired from 11pm to midnight on WIOX 91.3FM and WGXC 90.7FM.
Alan Huggins, in a screenshot of a video interview with YNN.
Surprising most everyone except the Prattsville residents who voted for him, Alan Huggins appears to have defeated incumbent Prattsville town supervisor Kory O'Hara by a 15-vote margin (155 to 140) in Tuesday's election. Huggins was not on the ballot and had to rely on a write-in campaign to secure his victory. Though the results will not be official until sometime next week (see our full list of too-close-to-call races here), YNN reports that there were only 5 absentee ballots, so the unofficial results should stand.
Megan Cruz for YNN was able to catch up with Allan Huggins and town residents to get their reactions. Watch the video on YNN.com. Below is transcipt of interview.
The New York State Police report that a 40-year-old Deposit man was killed on Wednesday when his pickup truck collided with a tractor trailer hauling a pre-fabricated house in the town of Sanford, NY.
Bruce Singleton was a football coach at Seton Catholic Central High School in Binghamton, according to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, which ran an article on the accident last night:
Bruce Singleton, a defensive and special teams coach at Seton Catholic Central in Binghamton, was killed when his pickup truck collided with a tractor-trailer, according to state police.
According to Seton Catholic Central head football coach Mike Story, Singleton began coaching football at the school in the fall of 2010.
"I was fortunate enough to not just coach with Bruce, but to work with him," Story said. "I would spend 12 hours a day with him. There are a lot of good people in the world, but there are few who are not only good but make those around him better. He was one of those.
Photo by Flickr user Michele Truex. Published under Creative Commons license.
Every election season, there are a few races that are so close that a victor can't be declared for certain until every last absentee and affidavit ballot has been counted. This year is no exception.
We've compiled a list of too-close-to-call races in Delaware, Greene, Schoharie and Ulster Counties. Many of these races won't be determined for sure until near the end of next week -- or perhaps longer, if there are challenges.
Sullivan County is still re-canvasing their vote totals to make sure that the results called in from the polls on Tuesday night are accurate. The Sullivan County Board of Elections says they will have a list of too-close-to call races by the end of the day Monday, so we'll be checking back in with them next week to find out which races are still in limbo.
State race:
State supreme court justice, 3rd Judicial District (vote for two)
Above: Video of the scene of the explosion via YouTube user drumcircler.
We're a little late on the uptake on this. (Blame the elections.) The State Police reported on Monday that a house on Giardina Lane in Saugerties exploded on Monday afternoon. A 16-year-old who was nearby at the time of the blast suffered a concussion due to the explosion, and was treated and released.
The police are guessing that the cause of the explosion was a propane leak.
Today, the Daily Freeman reports that Saugerties Police Chief Louis Barbaria has determined that the explosion was accidental, despite initial fears that it was an intentionally-set bomb:
This week on the Watershed Post Half-Hour News Hour, we talked with freelance writer and Rosendale resident Sari Botton about a voting kerfuffle in Rosendale's hotly contested supervisor race. We also discussed some of the most interesting election results from around the Catskills.
Photo from the Red Goats of Kingston Facebook page.
The Kingston Police Department issued a press release yesterday trumpeting the arrest of two people who allegedly are the masterminds behind the rash of red goats that have been popping up as graffiti around Kingston's Uptown District.
About 500 ballots cast in Rosendale were missing from the Ulster County Board of Elections' unofficial tally last night, but have since been accounted for.
The new results are still unofficial, but the totals for local races are much closer to poll watchers' estimate of about 2100 ballots cast. Numbers posted on Democratic candidate Jan Metzger's website this morning show a Republican sweep of the town supervisor and town board races:
Town Supervisor
Jeanne Walsh (R) .. 1087
Jen Metzger (D) .. 1032Town Board (vote for 2)
Bob Ryan (R) .. 1097
Bob Gallagher (R) .. 1089
Alex Ferguson (D) .. 972
Rich F-Stop Minissali (D) .. 956
Ulster County Board of Elections Republican commissioner Tom Turco confirmed that the numbers on Metzger's website, while still unofficial, were correct.
Update, 11:45am: The missing votes have been accounted for; new unofficial results show a Republican sweep of town supervisor and town board races.
Poll-watchers in the Ulster County town of Rosendale are reporting that the unofficial results for the local town races appear to be missing between 500 and 600 votes. If so, the missing votes add up to roughly a quarter of the ballots cast.
The discrepancy leaves the outcome of local Rosendale races very much in question. The supervisor's race, between Democratic candidate Jan Metzger and former Democrat-turned-Republican Jeanne Walsh, was a hotly contested race, and the unofficial totals reported on the Ulster County Board of Elections website -- 765 for Metzger, 745 for Walsh -- are very close.
The town board race, in which four candidates were vying for two slots, was similarly close, with just a 38-vote difference between top vote-getter Bob Gallagher (754) and Richard Minissali, who came in last (716).
