District 10 residents could wait as long as seven business days to find out who will represent them on the Westchester County Board of Legislators next year, election officials said Wednesday evening.
So far, Democratic challenger John Fitzpatrick is ahead in the race to represent the district which covers Eastchester, Tuckahoe and New Rochelle, according to unofficial board of elections results. Incumbent Sheila Marcotte, who is on the Republican, Conservative and Independence tickets, is behind in the race by 275 votes, based on the unofficial tally.
However, there are 19 voting districts 12 in New Rochelle and seven in Eastchester unable to report results.
Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Douglas Colety said now that the election is over, the voting machines will be returned to the warehouse where they are stored. The next step, he said, will be to retrieve the information from the machines. Colety said all of the voting machines contain two memory cards, one of the cards is locked into the machine, along with the printout that resembles a grocery store receipt.
In Tuesdays election, that memory card and printout could not be retrieved because there is a court order impounding the machines, he said. But the second memory card, located on the outside of that locked portion can be retrieved and the results can be gathered.
"This is what we will do for the machines that malfunctioned in some way," Colety said. "We will be able to get the numbers, but they will not be official until we go to court and get an order to lift the impound."
Colety explained that during the process of retrieving the information from the machines, representatives from all political parties will be on hand. "We will retrieve and compile the results as a team of inspectors," he said.
In the meantime, Fitzpatrick is taking the delay in stride, according to his campaign manager Mike Grubiak. "Of course we want to know, but we know it will take some time," Grubiak.
Marcotte left on a long planned vacation with husband, Tommy, in Turks and Caicos.
"We will be working very hard to compile the results over the next few days," Colety said. "We would like to have unofficial results as quickly as possible."
Colety said there are 1,000 voting machines to be accessed, one for each district in Westchester County.
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