(This story was updated to reflect the fact that board of election tallies may not yet be complete.)
Votes rejecting moving Pelham Manor’s elections to November from March held the lead as of 12:52 a.m. with all five of the village’s voting districts reporting, according to unofficial Westchester Board of Elections results.
However, the board of elections’ website provides no indication as to whether the board’s tallies include early voting or mail-in and absentee ballots.
From the five voting districts, the ballot initiative to shift the Manor election date, called Proposition 3, received 959 “no” votes to 896 “yes” votes, the board of election website said, labeling that “100%” of the vote and saying nothing else. This is a developing story, and the Pelham Examiner will update it as the board of elections provides additional returns.
Proposition 3 read:
“Shall the General Village Election of the Village of Pelham Manor be held annually on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in November and be conducted by the Westchester County Board of Elections, with the term of office of each elected Village Officer currently holding office extended so as to terminate at noon on the first Monday in December in the year in which their term of office would otherwise expire, upon which date the term of office of any subsequently-elected Village Officer will commence?”
With one of five Village of Pelham voting districts yet to report, three Democratic candidates for the Village of Pelham Board of Trustees running unopposed were confirmed in their bids for two-year terms. They are incumbents Hanan Eldahry and Russell Solomon and newcomer Krystal Howell.
Vote totals will be published when the last district reports.
The Village of Pelham board has seven members and will remain all Democratic.
Likewise, Town of Pelham Justice John Gardner won his reelection bid on the Democratic line with the one Village of Pelham district’s count outstanding. He was also unopposed.
Proposition 3 arrived on the ballot after a courtroom battle this summer.
Erica Winter, co-chairwoman of the Move the Manor Village Election Committee, delivered an 801-signature petition calling for the referendum on July 1 to Pelham Manor Village Manager Lindsey Luft, who in her role as village clerk reviewed and rejected the petition four days later. Winter and Pelham Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Allison Frost won a reversal in state court. The Pelham Manor Board of Trustees, Luft and the Republican county election commissioner lost an appeal of that decision, and the four-judge appellate panel sent the issue to the voters of the Manor to decide.
The all-Republican village board opposed moving the municipality’s elections to November, while the Pelham Democratic Town Committee backed the change.