By Tom Grace
Recounts and absentee ballots may alter the outcome of last week's justice races in New York's Sixth Judicial District, according to Sheila Ross, Otsego County Republican deputy elections commissioner.
There's even a chance Otsego County Judge Michael Coccoma's second-place finish could be affected, officials said Monday.
Last week, an unofficial tally of the 10 counties that compose the district showed that three Republicans _ incumbent Justice Phillip Rumsey, Coccoma and Schuyler County District Attorney Joseph Fazzary _ were elected to three seats, defeating three Democrats.
On Monday, however, Ross said she had heard of at least one error in the counting that puts Democrat Molly Fitzgerald, a lawyer from Binghamton, close to or in front of Fazzary.
``Nothing's official, but that race is very close,'' Ross said. ``We're going to begin counting paper ballots Wednesday, and we'll have attorneys from Fitzgerald's and Fazzary's campaigns there, watching.''
Fitzgerald was unofficially credited with receiving 51,865 votes on Election Day, 204 votes fewer than Fazzary's 52,069.
In addition to any possible error in reporting votes that may alter the outcome, there are thousands of paper ballots still to be counted, Fitzgerald said Monday.
``There was a 600-vote shift reported Friday in Broome County, and that was heartening,'' she said. ``But it's too early to get excited about it because as they recanvass, the total might shift again.''
Fitzgerald said that until very late election night, she was in second or third place in the running tallies compiled.
``It looked pretty good for us until the results from Delaware County came in at the very end,'' she said. Delaware's unofficial totals moved her to fourth place until Friday, when the error was discovered in Broome County.
Fitzgerald said she will be at the Otsego County Board of Elections on Wednesday to watch as votes are counted.
According to the Ithaca Journal, more than 2,400 paper-ballot applications were sent out to voters by the Broome County Board of Elections, where Fitzgerald practices law and where she won the machine tally last week. This compares to just 45 paper ballots mailed out in Fazzary's home county of Schuyler, that newspaper reported.
Ross, who is also Otsego County's Republican chairwoman, said even Coccoma, whose total stood at 53,309 on election night, is not out of the woods.
``I think Judge Coccoma is safe at this point, but with thousands more votes to count, it's still too early to say for sure,'' she said.
Marianne Bez of Cooperstown, who helped coordinate Coccoma's campaign, said the judge has been very cautious about his apparent victory.
``It was very close election night, and it's still very close,'' she noted.
The other two Democrats in the race, Chemung County lawyer Richard Rich with 41,542 votes, and Madison County District Attorney Donald Cerio with 36,365 votes, unofficially, are out of the running unless a large discrepancy is found.
However, the top four candidates are still viable, Ross said.
State Supreme Court justices serve 14-year terms and are paid $136,700 a year. The counties in the Sixth Judicial District are Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins.
