Garcia, Diehl, win Conservative slots for Grand Island Town Council

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

In Tuesday’s Primary Election on Grand Island, two out of the three candidates won spots on the Conservative Party line in the Nov. 4 general election for the office of council member. In unofficial results, the winners are current Town Board member Jose Garcia and candidate Rhonda G. Diehl.

The third spot on the primary ballot was a write-in opportunity to ballot. Current Grand Island School Board member Sherry Steffans ran a write-in campaign for Town Board.

Garcia pulled in the most votes in the contest (89). He won 44.06% of the votes cast. The totals reflect votes cast on Primary Day, as well as during early voting and by absentee ballot.

Rhonda Diehl came in second, with a total of 57 votes, or 28.22%.

The write-in candidate won 56 votes, or 27.72% of the ballots cast.

A total of 198 people voted in the Grand Island Conservative Party primary.

Erie County Board of Elections Commissioner Ralph Mohr told Niagara Frontier Publications that any absentee ballots received after June 23, and any unresolved affidavit ballots, would remain to be counted in the totals.

“There was one absentee ballot that’s here,” he said. “What occurs is, under changes in the state law, everything is counted that we receive as far as absentees up until the day before the election. So, if it comes in after the mail on Monday, we run all the absentees without knowing the results on Election Day.”

“There is still possibility of ballots,” Mohr added. “Absentees can still come, as long as they’re postmarked on Election Day. I know that somebody’s claiming that there’s two absentees out there that were mailed. One of them did arrive on Election Day and has not been counted. In addition to that, there are affidavit ballots, which are possible. And those are – if somebody shows up to vote, and let’s say they moved onto Grand Island, but they didn’t notify the Board of Elections, as long as they’re registered within the state, their vote will count.”

“But we don’t know how many affidavits there are until everything’s collected. So, there are still outstanding ballots that are possibly to be counted.”

Mohr said the official total should be known within another week or so.