In his 28 years as Erie County's Republican elections commissioner, Ralph M. Mohr has monitored his share of write-in vote counts, but never in the volume his staff faces this week.
The task of counting more than 34,000 write-in votes cast in the Nov. 2 general election began Wednesday in a process expected to last several days. When all are examined and officially tabulated, the votes will determine whether incumbent Byron W. Brown convinced enough voters to write in his name and overcome Democratic nominee India B. Walton in the contest for mayor of Buffalo. Following Walton's victory in the June Democratic primary, Brown was forced to mount a write-in effort on a scale never previously seen locally or across the state.
"Obviously, we've had write-in votes before and the process is pretty much the same," Mohr said Wednesday afternoon. "But the volume we have currently is unprecedented in Erie County."
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In previous years, Board of Elections staffers have dealt with their share of write-ins for "Mickey Mouse" or "Donald Duck" entered by disgruntled voters. But this year, the write-in process assumed great focus as Brown embraced it as his only hope for a fifth term in City Hall.
Now, all indications point to the mayor's eventual success as even Walton acknowledges her chances of victory appear remote. Returns from election night indicated 25,198 votes for Walton and 36,439 write-ins and absentees. Other candidates were also conducting low key write-in efforts, but the vast majority are expected to be counted for Brown. As a result, more than 11,000 of the write-in votes would have to be cast for others beside Brown or Walton to prove competitive.
Erie County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner Ralph Mohr talks about the importance of the county's nearly 13,000 absentee ballots for the close races.
Deputy Mayor Betsey Ball, who directed the Brown effort, said the campaign is expressing even more optimism as the write-ins are counted. She said early "undervote" totals stemming from those failing to fill in the write-in oval on the ballot but who still wrote down or stamped Brown's name, have proved encouraging.
She said Brown's team is now buoyed by the realization that Buffalo voters learned the unfamiliar mechanics of casting a write-in vote, including use of pre-inked stamps with the mayor's name distributed by the campaign.
"That aspect is pretty amazing and the campaign feels proud that the message got across," Ball said. "People clearly knew how to write us in or use the stamp and the machine recorded it perfectly."
Still, the process continues. On Wednesday, staffers were wheeling in bins filled with hundreds of ballots that are then unfolded, examined and tabulated at five long tables staffed by five or six teams of bipartisan workers – about 20 in all.
Board spokesman Derek Murphy explained staffers started Wednesday by examining ballots cast in the Delaware District, making sure the number of write-in ballots cast there match those on hand at the board. By day's end, the board had counted 5,750 write-in ballots; 5,705 went to Brown.
Plans call for the process to operate from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Murphy said, and will continue through Friday. He said it is not yet known if counting will end by Friday.
"It will be at least a couple of days," he said.
Mohr said early voting, instituted just two years ago, has slightly complicated the process because Buffalo citizens could have cast their ballots in outlying towns.
"So if someone may have cast a ballot in Aurora or Sardinia, we have to look at those ballots," he said.
On Wednesday representatives of the Brown and Walton campaigns were hovering about, scrutinizing the examiners' every move.
"The commissioners met with representatives of the campaigns to explain the mechanics of the process and how to object to anything," Murphy said. "They're here to observe as they are entitled under the law."
So far, Ball said the Brown campaign is satisfied with the process. Ditto for the Walton campaign.
"It's been pretty fair and transparent," said Walton spokesman Jesse Myerson.
"They've been super-communicative with us," added campaign manager Drisana Hughes.
Murphy also noted that the process is proceeding smoothly and that all its nuances were explained to both parties beforehand.
"So far, there have been no disputes," he said.
