Miller wins Murray town supervisor
Overcomes gap on Election Day with absentee ballots
Photo by Tom Rivers: Election Commissioners Kathy Case, left, and Janice Grabowski count the absentee ballots from the Town of Murray this morning. Peter Reese, an attorney for Joe Sidonio, is standing and watching the count. Bob Miller, right, won the election after the absentees were counted.
ALBION – Bob Miller has emerged as the winner in the Murray town supervisor race after a big lead in the absentee ballots today.
On Nov. 7, Miller trailed Joe Sidonio by 16 votes, 558-542. Miller had 26-vote lead in the absentees that were counted this morning, 47 to 21 for Sidonio. The final tally is 589 for Miller, 579 for Sidonio.
The count ends a hard-fought race between the two candidates. Miller won a very close Republican primary against Sidonio, when Sidonio also have a slight lead only to be overtaken with the absentees.
Sidonio stayed in the race with the Conservative and Independence lines.
Miller, a retired state trooper, is currently a town councilman. He will succeed John Morriss as town supervisor. Morriss didn’t seek re-election.
There were four additional absentee ballots that weren’t counted today. Those included tenants in a house owned by Sidonio’s mother-in-law. Miller challenged that the four weren’t living in the house at the time of the election and had moved away.
Even if those were counted and Sidonio got those votes, he would still be behind by 6. (Sidonio also questioned another ballot of someone he said was living in North Carolina, and not locally.)
Peter Reece, an attorney hired by Sidonio to oversee the count this morning, said the gap is too much for Sidonio to overcome.
Miller’s term begins Jan. 1.
This morning’s count took about 2 1/2 hours. Miller received his 47 votes under 10B (Republican), while Sidonio received 14 under 10C (Conservative) and 7 more on 10F (Independence).
