India B. Walton acknowledged Wednesday she does not expect to accumulate enough votes in Tuesday's general election to become mayor of Buffalo once write-in ballots are allotted.
But because of the way Erie County election officials count votes, it will be weeks before the final totals of a historic race for mayor are known.
In a statement posted on Twitter that did not include the word "concede," Walton, the winner of the June Democratic primary, said Mayor Byron W. Brown's write-in vote totals would likely exceed her own.
"Tens of thousands of write-in and absentee ballots have yet to be tabulated, and we believe that democracy requires that every vote be counted, and that any improprieties that occurred be brought to light," she said. "However, while we anticipate that the margins will narrow, it seems unlikely that we will end up with enough votes to inaugurate a Walton administration in January."
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Even Brown's most ardent supporters were surprised at the speed with which the four-term mayor was able to claim a decisive victory Tuesday over Walton.
"We didn't expect to know this quickly," said Eunice Lewin, co-chair of Brown's write-in campaign, referring to the write-in results.
But because of the way Erie County election officials count votes, the public won't know the final results for another two weeks.
The uncertainty stems from the nature of the write-in candidacy of Brown, as well as the fact that Erie County won't examine and award a single write-in vote until at least Nov. 16.
The Erie County Board of Elections waits until 10 business days after the election – until all absentee and military ballots have been returned – before hand-counting any write-in votes, election commissioners said last week.
“We do it all at once at that point," Republican elections commissioner Ralph M. Mohr said. "Just for economy’s sake.”
Mayor Byron Brown speaks to supporters after declaring victory over India Walton for mayor of Buffalo on Tuesday.
According to the unofficial results on Erie County's election website, Walton received 23,986 votes, or 41% of the total.
Meanwhile, there were 34,273 write-in ballots cast – just under 59% of the total. Most of those are presumed to be cast for Brown.
While Brown claimed those votes as his own on Tuesday – and while no one is suggesting that Brown will not likely receive the majority of those votes – it's unclear how many people, for instance, wrote in other names, like those of lesser-known mayoral write-in candidates Ben Carlisle and Jaz Miles, or even Mickey Mouse or Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who have received write-in votes in past races.
The Walton campaign could also challenge some of those write-in votes when they are counted by hand if her campaign claims that voters wrote down Brown's name incorrectly or in the wrong column.
Then there's what election officials call "undervotes": write-in votes where people did not fill out the bubble before writing in a name. Those votes will likely count, officials said, but would not have registered in Tuesday's totals.
Cariol Horne enthusiastically campaigns for India Walton outside the Delavan Grider Community Center polling site while David Manuel campaigns for Byron Brown.
Election officials will not begin examining the actual write-in votes until all absentee and military ballots are returned to the elections board.
“It’s basically going to be the same exact process as it always is," Democratic elections commissioner Jeremy J. Zellner said last week. "We will be hand-counting the ballots for mayor, and we’ll be doing it in a bipartisan fashion."
Mohr said he has plenty to do before then, including research on questionable votes that have been flagged by elections inspectors or situations where, for instance, voters might have cast absentee ballots and tried to vote in person, too.
Zellner urged patience and asked voters to – as Allen might say – trust the process.
"We don’t want to get started counting without everything in," Zellner said. "It’s just not a good practice.”
Walton, in her statement, described tactics she said were used against her campaign, including what she described as "Republican poll inspectors pre-stamping ballots." The campaign provided no additional information.
Walton’s suggestion that there may have been improprieties in some of Brown’s write-in ballots prompted the Board of Elections to immediately review the matter.
In a statement Wednesday evening, Commissioners Mohr and Zellner said: “As soon as we were made aware of the alleged incident, the inspectors in question were dismissed and replaced. We have referred the matter to the District Attorney’s Office for a full review and investigation.”
- News political reporter Robert J. McCarthy contributed to this report.
