Wayne County results put Ann Marie Buerkle ahead for 25th Congressional District Race

The election will be decided by absentee and military ballots.

View full sizeDennis Nett / The Post-StandardAnn Marie Buerkle said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon that it is still too early to comment on the race because not all votes have been counted. However, Buerkle is in the lead after Wayne County announced its results early Wednesday evening.

Syracuse, NY -- In a stunning reversal from election night, Republican Ann Marie Buerkle surged ahead of U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei by 659 votes Wednesday in the 25th Congressional District race after Wayne County reported its unofficial returns.

Buerkle began the day trailing Maffei by about 5,600 votes, but she took the lead after a convincing victory in Wayne County, the final county in the four-county district to report its results. Buerkle trounced Maffei in the rural Republican county, 15,429 (63 percent) to 9,191 (37 percent), according to returns Wayne County released at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday — more than 20 hours after polls closed.

Now the two candidates are separated by only 659 votes -- Buerkle leads 99,594 to 98,935 -- meaning the election will be decided by absentee and military ballots.

More than 11,000 of those ballots were distributed in Onondaga, Wayne and northern Cayuga counties, and in three towns in Monroe County, according to election officials. Absentee ballots can be counted Tuesday, but military ballots postmarked by Nov. 1 can be counted up until Nov. 24.

With the race too close to call, Maffei declined to answer questions on Wednesday. In a statement, Maffei’s campaign manager, Dan McNally, expressed confidence that the absentee ballots would favor the freshman Democrat from DeWitt. Most of the absentee ballots (8,154) were distributed in Onondaga County, which Maffei won by 6 percentage points.

“Given how close this election is, we think every vote needs to be counted,” McNally said. “We’re confident that absentee and military ballots will make up the difference.”

Buerkle, in an interview Wednesday night, said she was optimistic but would hold off on declaring victory until a routine recanvassing and the counting of absentee ballots. “I think the most important part is to let this whole process play out,” Buerkle said. “We’ve got to review every eligible vote. We are confident at the end of this process that we will be victorious.”

Buerkle wasted no time preparing to be the Syracuse area’s first congresswoman. She took part in an early evening conference call between new House Republicans and their leaders — Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.

View full sizeJohn Berry / The Post-StandardU.S. Congressman Daniel Maffei, joined by his wife, Abby, speak to Democrats gathered at the Holiday Inn in Liverpool on Tuesday. After vote totals from Wayne County were added in Wednesday, Republican Ann Marie Buerkle has taken the lead in the 25th Congressional District race.

Both Maffei and Buerkle spent much of the day consulting with their lawyers, who requested that ballots be impounded for a recanvassing and possible recount. Republican Party lawyers from Washington, D.C., traveled to Syracuse to help the Buerkle campaign, according to Liza Lowery, a campaign spokeswoman.

Republicans, who rode a wave of voter discontent to capture control of the House of Representatives, were particularly eager to capture Maffei’s seat. He was among 62 vulnerable or freshman Democrats who received support through the Democrats' Frontline program. Of those 62, only three had held onto their seats as of Wednesday — including Maffei and neighboring U.S.
Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, whose district includes Oswego and Madison counties.

Maffei began the day with 89,744 votes (52 percent) to Buerkle’s 84,165 votes (48 percent), according to unofficial election returns.

Wayne County did not report its results Tuesday night because of new procedures related to the state’s electronic voting system. Officials at the Wayne County Board of Elections blamed the delay on an overwhelmed phone system and new requirements to pick up voting machines and printouts of their results on the same night as the election.

Jack Bailey, the county’s Democratic elections commissioner, said only 17 of the 67 precincts were able to phone in results Tuesday night before their machines and printouts were picked up by elections workers. He said many inspectors receiv
ed busy signals when they tried to get through one of the six phone lines to the Wayne County Board of Elections.

Complicating matters was a larger-than-normal voter turnout in two Wayne County precincts where voters reportedly stood in line for more than 90 minutes after the polls closed.

“Suddenly, Wayne County is the linchpin,” Bailey said, clearly enjoying the county’s ability to influence a race that usually focuses on Syracuse, Onondaga County and the Rochester suburbs. He added, “I guess that’s one way to get attention.”

Contact Washington correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751.