Buerkle Widens Her Lead in Race
| Republican Ann Marie Buerkle increased her lead by an additional 95 votes today after Monroe County absentee ballots were opened.
The ballots were opened in a courthouse in Onondaga County after a judge ruled that because the ballots did not have specific objections, he had nothing to rule on. Buerkle is now 824 votes ahead of her opponent Rep. Dan Maffei, a Democrat. State Supreme Court Justice Brian DeJoseph in Syracuse ordered today that about 230 absentee ballot envelopes objected to in Monroe County be opened. The ballots are part of the ongoing count in the tight race in the 25th Congressional District between Maffei, D-DeWitt, Onondaga County, and Buerkle of Onondaga Hill, Onondaga County. The ballot envelopes were objected to by the Maffei and Buerkle campaigns but reasons for the objections were not specified. DeJoseph said that without a specified objection the court had nothing to rule on. Also today, the counting of absentee ballots is beginning in Onondaga County. The Onondaga absentee ballots — numbering more than 6,000 — will decide the the race between Maffei and Buerkle. |