SARATOGA SPRINGS -- A third-party candidate for Saratoga County sheriff who lost by a wide margin in Tuesday's election is questioning the vote's outcome because of an apparent snafu at a Saratoga Springs ballot box.
Jason Longton said Wednesday he was troubled that election commissioners had not contacted him to tell him about the problem. A voter reported Tuesday that Longton's name appeared under the ballot line for Saratoga Springs mayor, instead of appearing under the county sheriff line as it should have.
Longton said he wants a written explanation of what happened, and said he would consider contesting the race if he thinks there is enough evidence of wrongdoing.
"I have to question how seriously they are taking this if they don't contact me to let me know what happened," said the one-time Corinth police officer, who ran on the "Stop Corruption" line. "Something just doesn't seem right."
Saratoga County Republican Elections Commissioner Diane Wade, responding to Longton's complaint, said election officials moved immediately to address the issue once it was raised.
Emergency paper ballots were given to voters in the district until the ballot box was fixed, she said.
Wade said names on the strips within the ballot box do, on occasion, get moved inadvertently, and that was the likely scenario in this case.
"These are delicate machines, and sometimes these things happen," she said.
As many as 80 residents had cast ballots before a voter brought the issue to elections officials' attention, but that does not necessarily mean that all of those previous voters experienced the same problem, Wade said.
"I can't believe that many voters would have voted and not noticed anything, so everything must have been fine," she said.
Officials will begin to register and certify the election Thursday despite Longton's criticism, Wade said.
Longton collected 3,532 votes in his bid to unseat longtime Republican incumbent James Bowen.
Bowen, on his way to an 11th term, got 26,607 votes countywide, according to unofficial election results.
Posted in Govt-and-politics on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 7:40 pm | Tags: Sheriff, Longton
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