Syracuse Republicans may have a nominee for mayor, but Democrats are still waiting for the results of their mayoral primary. Unofficial election results show Khalid Bey in the lead over Michael Greene by 46 votes. Absentee ballots still need to be counted, and could affect the outcome of other primary races in addition to the mayoral.
Onondaga County’s Democratic Elections Commissioner Dustin Czarny said they will start counting those absentee ballots June 29th, in accordance with State law. Czarny says the tight margins aren’t entirely unexpected, but show how impactful primary votes are.
“Your vote counts more in a primary than it does on an election day because there are so few people out there voting. And in some cases, they don’t even have a general election opponent. So you’re actually choosing your next legislator or town councilor,” said Czarny.
If the margin between candidates after the absentee votes are counted is 0.5% or 20 votes, the Board of Elections must recount all votes cast by hand. Czarny said if that’s the case, they hope to be able to certify results by July 6th.
The board of elections has posted the unofficial results of all primary races:
- Councilor At Large (Democrat)- Voters could select up to 2 of 6 candidates. Rasheeda Caldwell took home the largest share of the vote, just over 30%. Amir Gethers has the next largest share at 16.4%. Incumbent Ronnie White Jr. holds third place with just shy of 14% of the vote.
- Commissioner of Education (Democrat)- Voters could select up to 3 of 4 candidates. All four candidates would be new to the school board. Nyatwa Bullock, Karen Cordano, and Twiggy Billue lead in that race.
- 1st District Councilor (Democrat)- Jennifer Schulz defeated long-time city Clerk John Copanas, earning over 67% of the vote.
- 15th District County Legislator (Democrat)- Incumbent Bill Kinne won the race over Joe Bennett. Kinne will face Republican Kevin Ryan in November.
- 16th District County Legislator (Democrat)- Charles Garland leads in the race against incumbent Vernon Williams. The winner of this race will run unopposed in November.
