All of the counting and recounting is not over yet, but as of Monday night, it appeared that Monroe County Democrats were poised to take control of the County Legislature for the first time in about three decades.
If the numbers hold up, the Democrats would have a narrow 15-14 margin.
With the county Board of Elections spending hours on counting absentee ballots and affidavit ballots on Monday, it appeared Democrats were leading in:
District 13: Democrat Michael Yudelson is leading Republican Matt Borkowski by about 100 votes.
District 16: Democrat Dave Long is leading Republican Joe Carbone, who is also the Legislature president, by just over 170 votes.
District 26: Minority Leader Yversha Roman is leading Republican Orlando Rivera by about 50 votes.
There are still a number of ballots that need to be hand-counted, but Monroe County Democratic Committee Chair Zach King said he did not anticipate those will change the course of these races, and he called it a “historic, albeit still unofficial day in Monroe County.”
The absentee and affidavit ballots also appear to have given Democratic incumbent County Judge Doug Randall a victory, depending on the possibility of any recounts.
He had been losing in that race on election night, which featured five candidates vying for three seats. The other two county judge candidates who are apparent winners are Democrat Caroline Edwards-Morrison and Republican Julie Hahn.
Among the closely watched town races, the race for Irondequoit town supervisor tightened up after the absentee and affidavit ballots were counted, but Republican Rory Fitzpatrick is still leading Democrat Joe Morelle Jr. by about 74 votes.
