Put Valley Board Candidate Seeking Recount
Post-election uncertainty continues to mount in Putnam Valley, as incumbent and three-term town board member Eugene Yetter, Jr. has filed a request for a recount nearly three weeks after Election Day.
Voters in Putnam Valley could only come to one concise decision on Nov. 8, with Democrat Steven Mackay netting a total of 1,219 votes to fill the first open spot on the board. The second seat up for election, however, was not so clear-cut after the Putnam County Board of Elections tallied the race’s absentee ballots.
On Nov. 15, The Board of Elections determined that Yetter and fellow incumbent Robert Cinque both received 1,191 votes, leaving the remaining seat undecided between the two. Almost one week later, Yetter filed an order for commissioners Robert Bennett and Anthony Scannapieco to appear before the state Supreme Court in Carmel this Wednesday,
This is the preliminary step in deciding whether or not a manual recount of every ballot will be conducted. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Yetter, each side will be invited to the Board of Elections to examine each submitted ballot.
The Nov. 8 election saw the use of the ES&S DS200 Ballot Scanner, a portable electronic voting system that utilizes an optical scanner to read paper ballots automatically on site. Voters in Putnam County cast their votes via a paper ballot, which was then interpreted by the machine. According to the Vote New York website, “the DS200 also notifies you of any voters errors. You will be able to immediately correct these errors to ensure that Your Vote Counts!”
Scannapieco said the likelihood of the recount producing a different result is “very small.”
“You only need one—Commisioner Bennett and I talked about this, and we would’ve done the same thing, asked for a recount,” Scannapieco said. “Hopefully there’s a deciding factor because I’d hate to see the town of Putnam Valley go through what the town of Carmel went through for the past year.”
After former Carmel town board member Anthony DiCarlo won the seat for District 9 legislator last year, the board did not appoint someone to the position. Carmel waited nearly a year for the town to decide who would fill the vacated seat, which was up for election on Nov. 8, 2011.
Three options exist if the state Supreme Court rejects Yetter’s order for a recount, or if it still produces a tie. According to commissioner Anthony Scannapieco, Gov. Andrew Cuomo could call a special election, but the likelihood of such an action is slim to none because of the race’s small-town nature.
At the start of the New Year, Putnam Valley will welcome back Robert Tendy, who defeated Wendy Whetsel to continue as town supervisor. Tendy, a Republican, will rejoin fellow party member Jacqueline Annabi. Whetsel, who will maintain her position as board member, and Mackay, who will begin his first term on the board come January 2012, are Democrats.
“The second option is that the town board can fill the seat,” Scannapieco said during an interview last week. “That is highly unlikely since there are two Democrats and two Republicans.”
With two of the town’s three options improbable, Scannapieco said another election might be held in November—leaving the board with a vacant seat for nearly 11 months. Any person, whether he or she ran in the 2011 general election, could take part in the race.
According to Scannapieco, the last time Putnam County witnessed a tie in one of its local races was 2005. Two Cold Spring Village Trustees were involved in a two-way tie, and unlike town races, the village determined the winner through a drawing of straws. Whichever candidate had the longest straw won.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.