History Would Favor Patterson, But Changing Voter Paterns Make this "Too Close To Call"

The first numbers are in and, the result is too close to call.  The absentee ballots that were mailed to the registrar have been tallied and Vice-Mayor Alan Schwartzman is hanging onto a razor thin 13 vote lead.

10 years ago this would have been considered a great result for Mayor Elizabeth Patterson.  Before absentee voting also known as vote by mail, became popular with all voters it was considered a tool used mostly by conservative voters.  If a more liberal candidate was within a couple hundred votes when the absentee tallies were posted it was thought that the liberal candidate had a great chance of winning.

In 2007 when Patterson ran against then Councilman Bill Whitney, she was behind  in the absentee voting by less than 200 votes and when the dust had settled and all the votes were counted she won by just under 200 votes.

But now, with more voters taking advantage of vote by mail the outcomes are harder to predict.  Still, from a historical perspective this could be good news for Mayor Patterson.