SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News)- A majority of Onondaga elections were decided on election night, but the country clerk race was not one of them. Democrat Emily Essi leads the incumbent Lisa Dell by eighty-three votes, a hand count is inevitable.
This is just the third year that the New York State hand-count ballot rule is in effect, with the race being within one hundred votes there will be a recount. Onondaga County Elections Commission Dustin Czarny describes the hand count process.
“We will inspect each ballot, all 90,000 ballots district by district going through for the close races that are in question and determining whether those ballots are valid”
Czarny described the hand count process.
“In a task like that where we are counting all ninety-thousand ballots, it’s all hands on deck we have about 18 full-time staffers here, we will stop all other work and be doing that.”
It is not an easy process, the hand count will begin after Thanksgiving, but results are not expected until mid-December.