Write-in ballots to decide public works race in Saratoga Springs

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The race for the city’s commissioner of public works remained undecided Tuesday night, with election officials left to examine write-in votes cast in a race that will decide the balance of power in city government.

Ballots with a write-in choice did outnumber the votes cast for Republican Charles Marshall. Democrat Hank Kuczynski’s name did not appear on Tuesday’s ballot, but his campaign waged an effort to elect him with write-in votes.

The unofficial tally showed Marshall received 1,684 votes compared to 1,725 for a write-in candidate. 

“I’m feeling very positive,” Kuczynski said on Wednesday morning. “We are up 41 votes. We have absentee ballots to come in. We are very positive.”

It’s unclear if all those votes were cast for Kuczynski. The leaders of both local political parties said they were cautiously optimistic. 

Both parties currently hold two seats on the council. If Republicans win, the five-member City Council will shift to the GOP for the first time in decades.

At the Republicans' post-election gathering Tuesday night at Inn at Saratoga, City GOP Chairman Michael Brandi signaled he would challenge the vote count.

“There was a complaint registered with the Board of Elections, and there were a couple of different things that were, for lack of better terms, improprieties,” Brandi said.

City Democratic Chairman Otis Maxwell said he expects it will take time to review the write-ins.

“You know, no matter how positive it is for Hank, there will be some that will be (challenged) and taken off,” Maxwell said.

Marshall said that he wanted to thank the more than 3,500 voters who came out, his volunteers and his family.

“I ran as a purple candidate and the numbers proved exactly that,” Marshall said on Wednesday. “We’re in a wait-and-see period and I’m optimistic to prevail.”

Early voting and absentee ballots went for Marshall by 38 votes — 712 to 674. Kuczynski said if his name is misspelled on the ballot, but close to correct, the vote will go to him because it shows voter intent.

Tuesday’s election follows months of debates at the City Council table, a Republican legal challenge to the Saratoga County Board of Elections, and internal battles within the city’s Democratic Committee and between the county’s two elections commissioners. The final days featured Republicans and Democrats accusing each other of violating state election law. 

Democrats asserted Republicans violated election law by counting write-in votes during the early voting period, and Republicans accused Democrats of electioneering when poll workers answered questions about the write-in.

Poll workers at the St. Clement’s Church site and the city’s Recreation Center, meanwhile, said they saw no electioneering and could only point to the directions at the top of the ballot for instructions on writing in a candidate’s name.

As of Wednesday afternoon, it was unclear when the county elections officials would begin the count of the write-in ballots.

In December, it looked like the seat would go to Republicans because Democrats filed too late to get their candidate on the ballot. Kuczynski, the city’s interim commissioner of public works, announced a write-in candidacy. He felt he had a good chance at victory because Democrats hold a 2,500-voter-enrollment advantage in the city. Republicans were counting on nonaffiliated voters and some Democrats to help carry the 45-year-old Marshall, a director of real estate for Stewart’s Shops, to victory.

Kuczynski, a 76-year-old former deputy mayor, was appointed by the council at the end of October. He filled a vacancy created by the resignation of Jason Golub, who left city government for a role at the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.