Ulster County election officials have around 2,800 absentee and affidavit ballots to begin opening and counting on Monday to determine the outcome of a district attorney race separated by only three votes on Election Day.
The contestants in the neck-and-neck contest to succeed retiring District Attorney Holley Carnright are Democrat Dave Clegg and Republican Michael Kavanagh, who held the three-vote lead out of nearly 50,000 ballots cast and tallied on Nov. 5.
Tom Turco, the county’s Republican election commissioner, said Tuesday that 2,275 of the 3,682 absentee ballots that Ulster voters had obtained had been submitted and seen by both him and his Democratic counterpart, Ashley Dittus. Another 142 absentees have yet to be viewed by Dittus. The county also has 428 affidavit votes that haven’t been reviewed yet for their validity.
Turco said the counting of absentee and affidavit ballots will start at 10 a.m. on Monday and could take at least two weeks to complete.