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Tune into WAER this election season for comprehensive coverage of local and statewide races. It's the information you'll need to make educated decisions on the races that could have an impact on your life.

Absentee Ballot Count to Begin Tuesday in Onondaga County; Races Hinge on Results

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Onondaga County Elections officials will begin counting more than 57,000 absentee ballots Tuesday, which will eventually determine the outcome of races that still have no clear winner.  

Most eyes will be on the 24th congressional district, where incumbent John Katko leads challenger Dana Balter 57 to 37 percent, or 55,000 votes across four counties.  Most observers say that gap isn’t likely to be overcome by the absentee count, but Balter has yet to concede the race. 

But even closer races could go either way:

Angi Renna holds a roughly 7,300 vote lead over John Mannion in the wide open 50th senate district race, which has about 37,000 thousand absentee ballots in Onondaga County alone;  

In the 53rd senate district, incumbent Rachel May is clinging to a 136 vote lead over challenger Sam Rodgers, with just over 20,000 Onondaga County absentee ballots to be counted;

Republican Mark Venesky has a roughly 1,000 vote lead over incumbent Al Stirpe in the 127th assembly district, where nearly 20,000 absentee ballots need to be counted. 

Officials say it could take a week or more before vote tallies are complete. 

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.