Lindy Ellis (Enterprise photo — Jesse Adcock)

SARANAC LAKE — Lindy Ellis appears to have won re-election for Franklin County District 7 seat, according to unofficial election results on Tuesday night and not counting any outstanding absentees not yet returned to the Franklin County Board of Elections. But Ellis technically wasn’t running for the seat anymore.

Ellis dropped out of the race in July, citing “intimidation … harassment and bullying” and a desire to spend more time with family as the reasons for her decision, but because the deadline to remove her name from the ballot had already passed, she remained a candidate on the Democratic and independent “Unity” party lines.

Just one week before the election, she publicly endorsed Danielle Carr, who ran on the independent “Independent North Country” party line, but Jeff Branch, the second-higher vote earner on Tuesday, who ran on the independent “Common Ground” party line, accused Ellis of running a “whisper campaign” in the weeks prior.

Ellis could not be reached for comment on election night.

The results from the Franklin County Board of Elections showed Ellis with 813 votes at the end of election night, including early votes and absentee ballots returned and scanned before Election Day. There is a difference of 105 votes between Ellis and Branch, the second-highest vote-getter.

Branch got 708 votes, Leigh Wenske got 587 and Carr got 554.

Wenske dropped out of the race in June after endorsing Branch, but his name still appeared on the Republican and Conservative party lines because he dropped out after the deadline, too.

But the election cannot be verified until all absentee ballots are counted, too. Election night was the deadline for turning in or mailing ballots, and they must arrive before Nov. 15 to be counted. Only then can the results be certified.

Ellis took 30% of the vote, Branch took 27%, Wenske took 22% and Carr took 21%.

Carr could not be reached for comment on election night.

In July, when Ellis dropped out, she said when people saw her name on the ballot on Nov. 8, “they should vote for the person of their choice.”

In October, asked what she would do in the case of her being the highest vote-getter in the election, Ellis said she would accept the position, and if the voters want her, she would serve. Wenske said at the time that if he got the most votes, he would decline the position, in which case the county legislature would appoint a member.

With less than a week until the election, Ellis endorsed Carr, said she cast an early ballot for Carr and told voters to follow suit.

Branch said people he thought were decently-informed on the race told him they were surprised to see Ellis’ name on the ballot. They thought she had fully dropped out.

“Lindy obviously had a whole planned thing. I don’t want to ever go out with sour grapes but …” he said, trailing off.

He also said he believed it was “poor form” for the Enterprise to write a story on Ellis endorsing Carr after the deadline for endorsement letters to the editor had passed. But he believes the timing of her announcement was on purpose on Ellis’ part.

“I guarantee it was a planned thing,” Branch said. “Lindy’s a very calculated person.”

But he said this wasn’t the biggest obstacle to his campaign.

“I think it played in a little bit, but I think it was more about party-line voting,” Branch said.

“Many people came out to vote against Elise Stefanik,” Branch said.

Her Democratic opponent, Matt Castelli, did very well in Harrietstown, he pointed out. Being off the main party lines in a year with high turnout likely hurt his vote count, he said.

Even Wenske, who had endorsed Branch, did very well vote-wise, and he had been out of the race for a long time, and had not been campaigning for months.

“It’s my fault as much as anybody. I didn’t do a good enough job of getting the word out there but I don’t think I could have done enough,” Branch said. “People are going to go out and, bang, ‘we don’t want Elise,’ and check all the boxes without really being informed.”

He had sent a letter to everyone in Harrietstown and Franklin explaining the ballot.

“I don’t feel bad. I think, given the circumstances, I did pretty damn well as an independent in the lower right-hand corner of the ballot,” Branch said. “I accept it. I’ll move on.”

Branch said he does not plan to run for office again.

“I’m 60 years old buddy. I can’t walk, let alone run,” he said.

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This is a breaking news story. More information will be added as it becomes available.