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Election 2011: Dougherty first super to win 3rd term since 1995

GIANNA VOLPE PHOTO | Supervisor Jim Dougherty at the American Legion Hall on Election Night, when he was behind in the count.

Supervisor Jim Dougherty, stunning his challengers, easily overcame an Election Day deficit to win a third two-year term with 41.5 percent of the vote as the Board of Elections finished its count of absentee and affidavit ballots in the supervisor race on Friday.

Mr. Dougherty is the first supervisor to win a third term since Democrat Hoot Sherman in 1995 and only the third to do so since perennial incumbent, Republican Evans Griffing in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr. Dougherty, trailing by a 61-vote margin on Election Night, beat his two challengers in the absentee voting by a margin of more than two to one. The total absentee and affidavit count, unofficially, was 153 for Mr. Dougherty, with Mr. Waddington and Mr. DeStefano tied at 62. There was one write-in vote for Roy Pellicano and one for Batman. Twenty-two ballots that were challenged on Friday during the count process are included in the totals. Mr. Dougherty took half of them.

Mr. Dougherty, who ran on the Democratic, Independence and Working Families lines, won the election with a 30-vote lead over Island Unity Party and Conservative candidate Mr. Waddington, 641 votes to 611 or 41.5 percent to 39.8 percent. Republican Bob DeStefano’s total was 283 votes or 18.4 percent, according to unofficial numbers.

In the council race, Election Day’s apparent victors held on to win after the absentee and affidavit ballot count was completed Monday.

Incumbent Republican Peter Reich held his wide Election Day lead in the five-way race for two seats, winning 709 or 24.8 percent of the votes cast in the race. Independent Paul Shepherd remained the other winner, in second place, but the 65-vote lead he held over third-place Will Anderson, a Republican, on Election Night shrank to 42 votes as a result of the absentee count. Mr. Shepherd finished with 585 votes to Mr. Anderson’s 543.

Democrat Dan Fokine ran a very close fourth with 541 votes and Democrat Ian Weslek gained 37 votes in the absentee count to finish with 476.

Absentee and affidavit results  in other races and on Proposition One — to reduce council terms from four to two years — were not available by press time. They were not expected to affect Election Day results: Democrat Jay Card led the race for highway superintendent by 132 votes and the proposition was defeated by a margin of more than  200 votes.

The Board of Elections was not expected to certify and officially announce all results until later this week.

Assessors Al Hammond and BJ Ianfol were re-elected without opposition as was tax receiver Nancy Kotula, all with well over 1,000 votes each.

THANKS VOTERS

Asked for comment, Supervisor Dougherty on Monday wrote in an email: “I was told last spring that three-way races aren’t easy for either the candidates or the voters and I found this campaign fascinating in that regard. Nonetheless, we got our message out and Shelter Island voters showed their mettle once again, turning out in record numbers — close to 70 percent of registered voters — to record their preference.

“Observing the absentee ballot count in Yaphank Friday, I was inspired by the efforts of close to 300 of our fellow  Shelter Islanders to participate in our election,” he said, referring to the total number of absentee ballots cast, “notwithstanding illness, work and family obligations and other factors preventing them from going to the polls November 8. Democracy on Shelter Island is alive and well and I thank every voter, whether they voted for me or one of my opponents, for contributing to this accomplishment.”

He added, “We will have a new face at the table January 3 and I welcome Paul Shepherd to our team. Paul has done his homework, researching issues and participating in our meetings, and I look forward to working with him.”

A SWEEP FOR SUPERVISOR

Among absentee voters, Mr. Dougherty took all four Island election districts by wide margins ranging from nearly 49 percent in Election District 2 — the Center, considered a stronghold for Mr. Waddington — to 63 percent in Election District 3, the Heights. On Election Day, he won only in Election District 1 — Ram Island and Hay Beach, considered his stronghold -— with about 47 percent of the vote there. Mr. Waddington took the other three districts on Election Day by margins ranging from 44 to 49 percent.

Of the 22 absentee ballots that were contested for flaws ranging from unsealed envelopes to missing postmarks or signatures, Mr. Dougherty eventually won 11, Mr. Waddington 4 and Mr. DeStefano 6.

Mr. Waddington and his election advisor Wayne Bourne realized on Friday that Mr. Waddington could not win even if all those challenged ballots eventually went to him. That made any court challenge over the contested ballots irrelevant, Mr. Bourne later said, leading to Mr. Waddington’s concession and making Mr. Dougherty’s win a certainty.

“It is over and I lost,” Mr. Waddington wrote in an email on Monday. “The absentees beat me.”

“I feel pretty bad about letting so many people down but am proud of the campaign we ran,” Mr. Waddington continued. “I think it was tight, clean and the message was clear. We did pretty well going up against the two major parties and I do not think Jim won by any kind of mandate” because a majority voted against him. “I will certainly work the absentees harder next time I run.”

Mr. Waddington will continue working as senior captain at South Ferry. He said in an interview on Monday that he would run for supervisor again in 2013.

Mr. Waddington and Mr. DeStefano fared poorly in the absentee balloting, both winning only 22.38 percent compared to Mr. Dougherty’s 55.25 percent.

Asked to comment on her candidate’s win, Heather Reylek, chair of the town’s Democratic Committee, cited the high turnout and high number of absentee ballots — both of which were goals for her committee as its workers made contact this fall with potential voters and helped them apply for absentee ballots.

“I think that the following considerations are important in regard to our Campaign 2011,” Ms. Reylek said. “There was a wonderful turnout of approximately 68.2 percent. The increase in the number of absentee ballots (there were 261 to be counted at the recanvass) is a reflection of that turnout.”

NOT A RECORD TURNOUT

A total of 1,537 ballots were cast in the supervisor race this year compared to 1,290 in 2009 when two independents, Mr. Shepherd and Bill Smith, challenged Mr. Dougherty; he won with nearly 71 percent of the vote. The turnout was not quite as high as in 2005, the first year Mr. Dougherty ran, when 1,547 ballots were cast in the supervisor race. Mr. Dougherty won about 57 percent of the vote then to 43 percent for Joyce Bausman.

“Of those absentee ballots, there was a near equal distribution of Republican and Democratic ballots,” Ms. Reylek said in her email, meaning a nearly equal number of registered Republicans and Democrats had filed requests for ballots. A number of those sent out were not returned.

“The turnout increase can also be attributed to the proposal to change the council term,” Ms. Reylek said, referring to Proposition One, which called for cutting the council term from four years to two and which was defeated by a wide margin. “The voters did not want that change. Anytime there is a three-way race for one seat, it becomes problematic in predictions. I always said that it would be a very tight race.”

She added in her email, which she sent before the council absentee count had been finished, “I believe that the voter support for Jim Dougherty and Peter Reich was support for experience and fiscal responsibility. Economic times are still very uncertain. I also think that there will be a surprising increase in votes for Fokine and Anderson once the final results [in the council race] are tallied. That one open council seat gave the voters,” she said, referring to the seat being vacated by Mr. Waddington, “an opportunity to vote for new ideas and more diverse representation.”