Record numbers of people voted yesterday and during early voting during this unprecedented COVID voting year. More than 116,000 votes were cast in Rockland, and with 100 percent of them counted, not including absentee ballots, Mondaire Jones was comfortably leading the race in the 17th Congressional district to replace Nita Lowey.
In the New York State Senate’s 38th District, for Senator David Carlucci’s seat covering southern Rockland and some Westchester, Ramapo Republican William Weber had a slight lead, around 7,000 votes with 40,000 absentee ballots left to count, over Nyack’s Democrat Elijah Reichlin-Melnick.
In the 39th District for North Rockland and parts of Orange County: Democrat James Skoufis had a 16-hundred vote lead over Republican Steve Brescia.
In the 97th Assembly District (parts of Ramapo and all of Orangetown): GOP Challenger Mike Lawler had 60 percent of the vote and an 8,000 point lead over incumbent Democrat Ellen Jaffee, who was seeking her eighth term in Albany.
99th Assembly District (Stony Point and parts of Orange County): Incumbent Republican Colin Schmitt had a comfortable 23 point lead vs. Democrat Sarita Bhandarkar.
96th Assembly District: Democrat Ken Zebrowski ran unopposed.
98th Assembly District: Republican Karl Brabenec ran unopposed.
In the race for Rockland County Clerk, Democrat Donna Gorman Silberman held a slim two percent lead over Republican Patrick Carle.
The referendum to lift the restrictive covenant and let the Palisades Center expand had strong support from Clarkstown voters, leading with about 59 percent of the vote in early unofficial returns.
In local contested elections:
In the village of Suffern Trustee race, it’s a close 4-way race for two positions, with Frank Hagen and Andrew Zavoski in the lead. Michael Hogan and Jeffrey Hirsh won Trustee positions in the village of South Nyack.
Going to vote first thing in the morning probably wasn’t the best of strategies. One caller to “The Morning Show” yesterday reported a late delivery of ballots to Haverstraw districts 10 and 16…
Elsewhere of note, New Jersey voted to approve legal recreational marijuana. Roughly two-thirds of voters gave the go-ahead to amend the Constitution to legalize pot for those 21 and older. It likely won’t happen anytime soon, as the legislature still needs to make the rules governing how it’ll be regulated.