Dems Sweep New Castle Town Board; GOP Concedes

Two weeks after Election Day, Democrats Susan Carpenter, Elise Kessler Mottel and Jason Chapin have won their elections for New Castle Town Board.

The margins of victory, while from unofficial results from the Westchester County Board of Elections, are based on the new inclusion of more than 80 outstanding emergency ballots and about 90 absentee ballots, the later of which were only counted Monday night.

The totals, current as of Tuesday morning, show Carpenter winning with 1,979 votes over Republican Robert Kirkwood, who garnered 1,835. This is a margin of 144 votes, barely a change from the 140 or so produced from the initial count of just regular machine-cast ballots.

On the council member side, two seats were up for election. Mottel, the incumbent deputy supervisor, will return to the board for a third term, having gotten 1,978 votes. Chapin, who served as a councilman in the early 2000s, will return to the board with 1,837 votes. Republican Rich Diefenbach finished third with 1,654 votes, while independent Rob Greenstein came in fourth with 1,124. Greenstein conceded hours after election night.

Chapin's margin over Diefenbach, which would have made the difference in a change of party presence on the board, is by 183 votes.

While the Democrats will maintain a lock on the town board that has been in place since the 1990s, the Republican ticket, known as Team New Castle, gave them their strongest and closest challenges in years

News of the emergency ballots having been counted - there were a large number because one election district had a ballot misprint for the failed ward referendum - was learned yesterday by this publication, and Patch sought comment from the Republicans about that change in the tallies. The response was a concession delivered Tuesday.

"Nearly all of the votes have been tallied, and we congratulate Susan Carpenter, Elise Mottel, and Jason Chapin on their successful campaign in the town elections," the statement reads. "They face difficult challenges, and we join our entire community in wishing them the best of luck and success as they embark on their important responsibilities."

Democrats, while having lead on election night, held off on declaring victory because the results of Election Districts 9 and 16 were outstanding due to machine issues. Also, neither side announced victory or defeat after the voting machine count was completed by the later half of that week, due to the relatively close leads held by Democrats prior to the counting absentee and emergency ballots.

Carpenter, the current planning board chair and in-house counsel for Westchester Land Trust, will succeed Democrat Barbara Gerrard, who is stepping down after two, 2-year terms. Chapin will replace Michael Wolfensohn, a Democrat who was denied renomination by the party for a second, 4-year term.