The Rockland County Board of Elections opened the absentee ballots from Stony Point and Haverstraw Monday morning and will count them in the afternoon as planned, but they do not know when they will get to the absentees from Orangetown, Clarkstown and East Ramapo.
Those absentee ballots will not be opened until the board of elections addresses challenges in closely contested races for Orangetown Supervisor and Spring Valley Mayor. They met with the candidates for Orangetown Supervisor, incumbent Democrat Andy Stewart and Republican challenger Walter Wettje, Jr., and their representatives Friday until approximately 6:30 p.m. and are meeting with them again today. Unofficial results as of Nov. 5 had Wettje ahead by 36 votes.
"We are still busy with Orangetown, then we will move on to Spring Valley," said Rockland County Elections Commissioenr Louis Babcock. "Ramapo, Orangetown and Clarkstown are on hold until we are through with this thing with Orangetown.
"It went kind of slow Friday. We got only 12 districts done in 12 hours. We have 40-something to go yet. It could be a while."
They are going through each ballot one-by-one with representatives from either side able to challenge each of them.
The entire process had been delayed due to an impound order on all ballots in Rockland and four other counties. For more read this report on Patch. Final results must be validated within 25 days of the election.
Once all challenges are addressed, the absentee ballots in the three remaining towns will be opened and counted.
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