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Pfizer’s announcement yesterday that it had a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing the virus, partially co-developed right here in Rockland, sent its stock and others soaring yesterday. WRCR’s Market Analyst Ken Mahoney of Mahoney Asset Management in Chestnut Ridge says, however, it will take some time before we get our hands on an actual vaccine…

County Executive Ed Day said he was proud to see the work being done right here in Rockland, calling the news promising for the country and the world. Pfizer’s primary research and development center is located in Pearl River, and they’ve been working on the vaccine with BioNTech based in Germany. Last week right here on “The Morning Show,” Orangetown supervisor Teresa Kenny said she saw lots of activity in the sky that told her something was happening at the Pfizer campus…

An external, independent Data Monitoring Committee found the vaccine offered protection 28 days after the initiation of the vaccination, which consists of a two-dose schedule. Pfizer says there have been no serious safety concerns found with the vaccine thus far. Pfizer and BioNTech will be submitting data later this month to the FDA, and hope to have 50 million vaccine doses ready in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. Pfizer’s stock price ended the day yesterday up $2.80 or 7.69% at $39.20 a share.

That was the scene in Nyack Saturday after the networks called the presidential race for former Vice-President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris. That audio courtesy of The Rockland Report. New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the first woman and African American woman to lead the Senate, says their election affirms the American Dream — the ability to accomplish something historic no matter who you are…

Stewart-Cousins says it’s time to heal the deep divisions in our society and come together to build a stronger and more just state and nation.

Even with the count of the absentee ballots slated to start today, it looks like the Palisades Center will have the restrictive covenant lifted. Clarkstown supervisor George Hoehmann says the “yes” votes have a pretty large lead thus far over the “no” votes…

Around 6,000 votes separate the yesses from the no votes. Palisades Center declined to comment.

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.

If you weren’t among the 36,195 early voters counted thus far by the Rockland Board of Elections, you and the rest of America will head to the polls today, Election Day. So far we’re hearing of very long lines at polling places around the county. 40,410 absentee ballots also were requested, nearly four times the number in the 2016 presidential election. Absentee ballot counting begins Friday and must be certified by November 28th. Rockland had a total of 206,086 registered voters for this election, almost 20,000 more than in 2016.

Polls are open until 9pm. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by today or dropped off at the Board of Elections or a poll site by 9pm. The secure drop box will be closed promptly at 9pm tonight. Rockland’s Democratic Elections Commissioner Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky says in this unprecedented time, those who got trained and worked behind-the scenes to help make Election Day happen deserve all the credit…

Rockland residents can vote for candidates for Congress, the New York State Assembly and State Senate, Supreme Court, and County Clerk. More locally, there are contested elections in Suffern and South Nyack for Trustee positions, there are uncontested elections in the villages of Haverstraw, Nyack, Piermont and Sloatsburg, and there’s the Palisades Center referendum in Clarkstown. Oh yeah, there’s also a presidential race, for which we may or may not know the winner tonight.