Astorino Lead Narrows After Dutchess Absentee Ballot Count

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — In the race for New York's 40th State Senate District seat, the Dutchess County Board of Elections has released its absentee ballot count.

Republican Rob Astorino challenged first-term Senator Pete Harckham in the district, which until 2018 had been conservatively Republican. He had an 8,000-vote lead over Harckham after Election Day.

The district includes parts of three counties, including Beekman and Pawling in Dutchess; Brewster, Carmel, Patterson and Southeast in Putnam; and Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Cortlandt, Croton-on-Hudson, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Salem, Peekskill, Pleasantville, Pound Ridge, Sleepy Hollow, Somers and Yorktown in Westchester.

A legal challenge filed by the Astorino campaign before Election Day means that absentee ballots are just beginning to be counted.

After Election Day, Astorino held a comfortable lead in Dutchess County with 62 percent of the vote. According to the New York Board of Elections, Astorino received 5,955 votes in Dutchess to Harckham's 3,217.

Absentee votes closed that gap for Harckham, according to unofficial results from the Dutchess County BOE. Dutchess has counted 2,077 absentee ballots in the 40th Senate District race: 1,288 for Harckham and 670 for Astorino.

Some absentee ballots remain uncounted still.

"We had signature challenges of 78 ballots, and we will send those to the judge tomorrow," Dutchess Election Commissioner Elizabeth Soto told Patch.

In Putnam County, Astorino led after Election Day with 63 percent of the vote. Putnam is expected to start counting its 7,000 absentee ballots in the 40th on Wednesday.

In Westchester County, where most of the district's voters live, Harckham held a narrow lead of 51 percent with 90,680 votes counted. Counting of its more than 25,000 absentee ballots in the race is expected to begin Friday.

In an election season when Republican leaders were arguing against mail-in voting, Democrats were far more likely to vote by absentee ballot, and the Harckham campaign believes most will fall in his vote column, Harckham campaign spokesman Tom Staudter told Patch.

Soto said the boards of election and the campaigns' attorneys are due back in court Monday.