Clarkstown, Orangetown election results challenged

Challenges over affidavits and absentee ballots are holding up final results in a pair of close races in Clarkstown and Orangetown.

Dozens of challenges were filed in the Clarkstown Town Council's Ward 2 race, where Democrat Daniel Caprara held a 25-vote lead over Republican Peter Bradley on Election Night, Rockland Board of Elections Commissioner Patricia Giblin said Tuesday afternoon.

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Bradley already has served the elections board with notice that he's contesting the validity of the absentee ballots and affidavits in Rockland County Court, Giblin said.

Unofficial results on Election Night showed Caprara with 3,314 votes to Bradley's 3,289 in Ward 2, which comprises Congers, Valley Cottage, Upper Nyack and part of New City.

The Board of Elections received 317 absentee ballots in the Ward 2 race, Giblin said.

The race is important because it could determine the balance of power on the Clarkstown Town Council, which is currently 3-2 in favor of the GOP.

Orangetown supervisor

In Orangetown, final results in the supervisor's contest between Thom Kleiner and Chris Day are also being challenged.

Giblin said Kleiner, the Democrat, had filed several dozen objections, while Day, the GOP candidate, filed hundreds of his own.

Unofficial results on Election Night showed Day winning the race by 190 votes: 7,830 to 7,640 for Kleiner.

A Day victory would give the GOP a 4-1 majority on the Town Board.

The day after the election, Kleiner said chances were slim that 600-plus absentee ballots could overcome Day’s unofficial lead.

“While it is not mathematically impossible that I could make up 190 votes, generally, in my experience, absentee ballot voters vote following the general election vote and realistically speaking, we are not going to overcome that gap,” Kleiner said at the time.