DELHI _ When the votes were being tallied in Delaware County on election night, there was speculation that there might be large write-in campaigns in Franklin, Meredith and Walton.
As the towns called in results to the Board of Elections in Delhi, there were only numbers _ not names _ available on the write-in line because the paper ballots were locked up, awaiting the re-canvassing of the ballots the following week.
Delaware County Election Commissioner William Campbell said that in the future, the outcome of write-in elections would not be known on election night.
"The new voting machine records that the write-in space has a mark in it, and that shows up on the tape printout, but it can't differentiate what the name is," Campbell said.
Campbell added that if the number of votes is sufficient, the canvass of the town in question could be scheduled earlier, but the name of the write-in candidate remains unknown until the re-canvass has been completed.
On Friday, the final tabulations were still under way, but the ballots with write-in votes had been counted and there were three fairly significant write-in campaigns to report, Deputy Election Commissioner Robin Alger said.
Alger said speculation about a Walton write-in was unfounded, but attempts to mount write-in campaigns in Franklin, Hancock and Meredith had yielded some significant results.
In Franklin, Betsy Babcock received 125 write-in votes for town clerk, but incumbent Republican Town Clerk Connie Young prevailed with 556 votes.
Incumbent Hancock Highway Superintendent Grayling Martin staved off a write-in challenge from Malcolm Crosson by a tally of 503 to 105.
Incumbent Meredith Supervisor Keitha Capouya received 245 votes, which only outdistanced a write-in challenge from James Small by 125 votes, with Small earning a total of 120 write-ins.
Alger said if there is ever a serious write-in challenge, the votes can be tallied fairly rapidly, because the new voting machines separate ballots with write-in votes in a separate locked compartment in the machine.
State Board of Elections spokesman John Conklin said he believes the write-in votes could have been counted and revealed on election night.
Campbell said the paper ballots remain in the locked boxes they are deposited in by the machine until they reach the Board of Elections in Delhi.
Campbell said there were some problems compiling the final election results on election night because of inexperience with shutting down the machines and printing out the results. He said he anticipates some of the numbers will change after the ballots are tallied by hand.
Alger said Friday that he expected the final official election results to be available this week.
