MAYVILLE - Primaries will be held Tuesday in six of the 25 County Legislature races.
Of the six primaries, one is for each of the Democratic and Independence Party lines while four are for Conservative Party endorsements.
As described by county Democratic Election Commissioner Norman P. Green, an opportunity to ballot comes when one party is not happy with the endorsement of a particular candidate. The opportunity to ballot puts that candidate in the primary against whoever else party members might write in at the polls.
As an example, Green pointed to the District 25 race between William Coughlin and Michael Sullivan. Coughlin currently holds both the Democratic and Independence party endorsements. As a result of the opportunity to ballot though, registered members of the Independence Party will have the opportunity to vote for Coughlin on Tuesday or write in another name - such as Sullivan's. The District 25 seat is currently held by Fredonia Democrat John Gullo and covers a portion of the village of Fredonia as well as Pomfret election districts 4, 5, 6, and 10.
There is also a Conservative Party primary for the District 25 race. with neither candidate currently endorsed by the party, the primary will likely give Coughlin or Sullivan an additional line on this November's ballot.
As in the District 25 Conservative Party primary, there are similarly no names on the ballot for the District 4 Democratic primary. There is currently no challenger running against incumbent Republican candidate George Borrello, of Irving. Borrello has the endorsement of the Republican and Conservative parties. The primary Tuesday will give registered Democrats an opportunity to write in a Democratic candidate, which would give Borrello a challenger in this fall's election. Legislature District 4 is comprised of the town of Hanover Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8.
CONSERVATIVE PRIMARIES
Other than in District 25, Conservative Party primaries will be held in Legislature Districts 8, 10 and 15.
The opportunity to ballot in District 8 will give Conservative Party members a chance to vote for either endorsed candidate Thomas A. Erlandson or write in another name, such as incumbent Republican candidate Tami Downey. Erlandson currently holds the endorsement of the Democratic, Independence and Conservative parties. Downey holds the endorsement of the Republican Party. Legislature District 8 covers the towns of Carroll and Kiantone as well as a portion of the town of Busti.
The opportunity to ballot in District 10 will give Conservative Party members a chance to vote for either endorsed candidate Patrick A. Tyler or write in another name, such as incumbent Republican candidate Mark Tarbrake. Tyler currently holds the endorsement of the Democratic, Conservative, Working Families and Independence parties. Tarbrake holds the endorsement of the Republican Party. Legislature District 10 covers several town of Ellicott districts as well as a single town of Busti district.
The opportunity to ballot in District 15 will give Conservative Party members a chance to vote for either endorsed candidate Robert W. Whitney, Jr. or write in another name, such as Republican challenger David Wilfong. Whitney currently holds the endorsement of the Democratic, Conservative and Independence parties. Wilfong holds the endorsement of the Republican party. The District 15 seat is currently held by Jamestown Democrat Maria Kindberg and covers wards 4-3, 4-4, 5-1, 5-2 in the city.
TUESDAY PRIMARIES
Polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. in Tuesday's primary elections.
Elections officials expect, according to Green, that many of the people who will vote in Tuesday's primary and in this fall's elections will already be familiar with the county's new optical scan voting machines. That's not the case for next year though.
"We know next year that we're going to get a 70 percent voter turnout," Green said Wednesday. "Of that 70 percent, we know only a little more than half of those people will have already voted on the new machines. There are a lot of people that vote only once every four years."