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Down-ballot, Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake differ

Wacky write-ins include ‘Giant Meteor’

Tupper Lake leaned Republican, and Saranac Lake leaned Democratic as the difference in support for Republican President-elect Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton trickled to down-ballot races.

After the Franklin County Board of Elections completed their final official tabulation of election results late last week, incumbent Republican U.S. Rep Elise Stefanik defeated her Democratic challenger Mike Derrick 54.3 percent (9,326 votes) to 38.7 (6646) in the county overall, while Matt Funiciello of the Green Party received 3 percent of the vote (521).

Stefanik topped Derrick by a wider margin in Tupper Lake, taking 56.2 percent (1,255) of the 2,235 votes cast to Derrick’s 34.5 percent (770) and Funiciello’s 4.3 percent (96).

But Derrick performed better in Saranac Lake, where his mother lives and where he visited often. He bested Stefanik in the town of Harrietstown. In Harrietstown, Derrick won 53.6 percent of the vote (1,218 votes) to Stefanik’s 38.7 percent (879) and Funiciello’s 4.9 percent (112).

Derrick also topped Stefanik in the town of Brighton, where he received 55.9 percent of the vote (254 votes) to Stefanik’s 38.3 percent (174) and Funiciello’s 19 votes (4.2 percent).

Unlike Democrat Billy Jones in the state Assembly race, who was able to win each town in the Saranac Lake area, Derrick lost Santa Clara and Franklin to Stefanik. Stefanik took 48.6 percent of the vote in Franklin (318 votes) to Derrick’s 44.5 percent (291 votes) while Funiciello won 29 votes total (4.4 percent).

In Santa Clara, Stefanik won 49.6 percent of the vote (112 votes), to Derrick’s 44.2 percent (100) and Funiciello’s four votes total.

Jones-Mulverhill

According to the final official tally by the Franklin County Board of Elections, Assemblyman-elect Billy Jones, D-Chateagay, defeated his Republican challenger Kevin Mulverhill 52.2 percent (8,932 votes) to 47.7 percent (7,654) in the county they both call home.

Support for Jones, chairman of the county Board of Legislators, was strong in the Saranac Lake area. He defeated Mulverhill, the county sheriff, in Harrietstown, Brighton and Santa Clara. Jones’ margin of victory was widest in Harrietstown, where 61 percent of the town’s 2,251 voters voted for him (1,372 votes), compared to 35 percent of the vote for Mulverhill (787). Jones defeated Mulverhill 55 percent (249) to 38 percent (172) in Brighton. In Santa Clara, Jones topped Mulverhill 51.4 percent (114 votes) to Mulverhill’s 44.6 percent (99 votes).

Mulverhill made Tupper Lake a point of emphasis in his campaign and held several campaign stops there in the months leading up to the election, resulting in a strong showing. Of the 2,223 total votes cast in Tupper Lake, Mulverhill won 50.2 percent (1,116 votes). Jones took 45.3 percent of the vote in Tupper Lake (1,007).

Mulverhill’s stronghold in the Saranac Lake area was Franklin, where he defeated Jones 51.2 percent of the vote (332) to 45 percent (292).

Write-ins

New Jersey-based write-in candidate and former marine Rob Shaver received only one vote in the county in the U.S. congressional race, that vote coming in Harriestown. A vote for Tim O’Neil in Tupper Lake was the county’s only other write-in vote in that race.

In the Assembly race, voters were a little more creative with their write-in choices. One person in Harrietstown voted for “Giant Meteor” while another in Malone voted for “Someone Worth a Dam.” A voter in Chateagauy voted for “Anyone Else,” and two voters in Fort Covington voted for “Bozo.”

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