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The Onondaga County Board of Elections has postponed counting absentee ballots until further notice after a staff member was exposed to the coronavirus.

Staff members will stop counting ballots and immediately arrange COVID-19 testing, the board of elections announced Friday.

“I know everyone will have questions. I ask patience as we secure the election and make sure our staff is safe,” said Dustin Czarny, Onondaga County Board of Elections Democratic commissioner, in a tweet. “I ask you give us some time to address the next steps and I will have more information later today.”

Several voters opted to cast their ballots by mail this year as a result of the pandemic. Onondaga County had tallied 26,075 absentee ballots after the third day of absentee ballot counting on Thursday. As of Nov. 6, the county had received 57,407 absentee ballots.

While the mail-in ballots delayed results for three state and local elections, two of those races have already produced clear winners since absentee ballot counting began.

Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus) declared victory over Democratic opponent Dana Balter in the race for the New York’s 24th Congressional District on Election Night with a lead by 20 percentage points.

Of the absentee ballots counted by Thursday, only 7,392 went to Katko. Balter, a former Syracuse University professor, took 16,678 votes. Balter’s lead in absentee ballots was not enough to overcome Katko’s advantage in votes cast on Election Day and during the early voting period.

State Sen. Rachel May (D-Syracuse) declared victory Thursday over Republican opponent Sam Rodgers in the race for New York’s 53rd State Senate District. May, who has represented the 53rd district since 2019, led against Rodgers with more than 15,000 votes as of Thursday, with only 5,000 absentee ballots left to be counted.

The race for the 127th Assembly District is yet to be called. As of Thursday, Democrat Assemblyman Al Stirpe had a lead over Republican Mark Venesky. Stirpe got 3,857 additional votes from absentee ballots in Onondaga County while Venesky received 1,884 more votes.

Published on November 13, 2020 at 1:56 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss