BUFFALO, N.Y. — The absentee ballot votes have now been totaled in the Democratic primary race for Buffalo mayor.
The Erie County Board of Elections announced Wednesday that incumbent Mayor Byron Brown tallied 1,002 of those votes, India Walton picked up 505 votes, and L'Candice Durham brought in 70 votes.
A spokesperson for the BOE says the absentee count, added to Primary Night results unofficially has Walton leading Mayor Brown by 1,010 votes.
On Monday, Mayor Brown announced his intention to wage a write-in campaign for the November mayoral election in an attempt to win a 5th term in office.
Mayor Brown released the following statement Wednesday afternoon in response to the BOE update:
“There is nothing more important than the democratic process in our society, which values each and every individual person’s vote said the mayor. " As I said at my announcement on Monday, I did not expect that the counting of the absentee ballots would change the preliminary results of last Tuesday’s Primary Election. Today that was confirmed.
As I also stated, knowing how important our democratic process is, the General Election in November will decide who will be the next Mayor of the City of Buffalo. For that important reason, and based on the overwhelming support and encouragement I have received since last Tuesday’s Primary, I have made clear my intention to run in November’s General Election as a write-in candidate.”
2 On Your Side reached out to the India Walton campaign, which offered this response:
“The final results confirmed what we expected: the voters have spoken and elected me as the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Buffalo.”
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