Paper Trails from The Weekly

Berkstresser and Hiltebrant scrapping for final votes

Democratic primary race still in the air with a tie not out of  the question

The most significant contest in last Tuesday’s primary was probably that between Demo-crats George Hiltebrant and Dave Berk-stresser, particularly for George Hiltebrant and his supporters.

All other primary day candidates had cross-filed as independents and were assured spots on the November ballot, regardless of their primary finishes.

Hiltebrant, on the other hand, put his full fate in the hands of Democratic primary voters, making it incumbent that he win.

Otherwise his quest to return as Town of Webb Supervisor, after having already served in that office for 25 years, followed by a 10-year hiatus, will end.

Right now Hiltebrant is trailing.

At the end of Primary Day, Berkstresser picked up 52 votes to Hiltebrant’s 46.

Eleven absentee ballots were provided to Democrats, but only eight of them had been marked and mailed back as of Wednesday, according to the Herkimer County Board of Elections.

Others may be coming—and those absentee ballots have a week to arrive and will be counted, provided they are postmarked no later than Monday, September 12th.

However, ballots not received by election day have historically been, for the most part, ballots that aren’t coming.

So at this time, it appears Hiltebrant will have to find seven votes among those eight absentee ballots (assuming that the remaining votes go to Berkstresser).

That seems like a tall order, but you never know.

The manner in which those votes break may depend on the make-up of those particular absentee voters.

If those voters tend to be older, they may have an attraction to candidate Hiltebrant as contemporaries.

If they are recently flown snowbirds or are folks on fixed incomes, they may find Hiltebrant’s absolutely-no-unnecessary-spending-whatsoever platform attractive.

On the other hand, if they are young people away at college or who have recently relocated while remaining registered to vote in the Town of Webb… that could favor Berkstresser.

And since there are an even number of votes at this time, there remains a real possibility that a one-vote pickup by Berk-stresser could create a tie.

In the event of a tie result, a County Board of Elections spokesperson said a recanvassing of the votes would take place first.

If a tie remained after the recanvassing, then a run-off election would have to be held “on the first Tuesday at least ten days after the final certification of such tie result,” according to New York State Election Law.

So, we’ll see.

Thank you to all the candidates, voters and poll workers that took part in Tuesday’s local primaries, and good luck to all the candidates in November.

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