Albany

One vote.

The razor-thin 10-vote margin on the Albany High School referendum got just one vote thinner following an all-day count of absentee ballots Tuesday. Yet there is no final tally to show for it.

The official outcome won't be known until Thursday. After a full day of counting Tuesday, there remain nine more opponents than supporters of the proposal. But the county Board of Elections still has 412 absentee ballots left to count from the upper wards. And because Wednesday is Veterans Day, the count won't resume until 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

The contentious $196 million referendum asked Albany City School District voters whether they would pay for a bigger, better high school and has split the community — yes versus no, uptown versus downtown and, to some extent, homeowners versus renters.

Here's where things currently stand: 5,685 people support the project and 5,694 people don't. Those totals include machine voters from all 15 wards and absentee voters from the first through 11th wards, whose ballots were counted Tuesday (179 yes, 178 no).

The majority of absentee ballots that were mailed back, however, came from the upper wards, where most machine voters were opposed. There are 94 left to count from the 12th Ward, 114 from the 13th Ward, 114 from the 14th Ward and 90 from the 15th Ward.

Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard told the Times Union last week she expected the vote to be close.

"I am fully cognizant of the tax impact and the potential of that high number to scare a segment of voters," she said. "I think it just reflects the climate we're in right now in Albany around this issue of tax burden. We have a large population of folks that are retired here, longtime residents who have had a lifetime of burden paying taxes in this city. We need to do a better job helping them understand why we need what we need."

A handful of ballots with extraneous markings were tossed Tuesday, following objections primarily by school board Vice President Sue Adler, who voted yes, and soon-to-be school board member Ellen Roach, a vocal opponent.

The final school board results won't be in until Thursday, when all the absentee ballots are counted. On Election Day the top three finishers for three open seats were Jennifer Lange (4,160), Ellen Roach (3,891) and Vickie Smith (3,691). In fourth place was Sridar Chittur (3,303), who briefly appeared at the absentee count Tuesday.

bbump@timesunion.com • 518-454-5387 • @bethanybump