No surprises in elections locally: Go for Bush, Schumer, Kelly, Rabbitt

WARWICK-Nearly 80 percent of registered voters throughout the Town of Warwick came to the polls Tuesday to vote in the presidential election. This followed a country-wide trend. Tuesday saw the biggest turnout since Richard Nixon won in 1968. Warwick Town Clerk, Karen Lavinski, said the traffic was "pretty steady" all day long "It ran pretty smoothly," Lavinski said. "It was steady all day so we didn't have lines and lines of people. People came all day." One of the races that interested many here in Warwick was for the New York State Assembly. Greenwood Lake resident and Warwick Town Councilwoman Annie Rabbitt ran against Democrat Bonnie Kraham for the seat that was being vacated by Howard Mills, who unsuccessfully challenged United States Senator Chuck Schumer. When voting was complete, Rabbitt held a slight lead over Kraham, just over 800 votes. While Rabbitt and her supporters celebrated the victory, Lavinski said the results won't be official until sometime next week when all absentee ballots are counted. "Absentee ballots must be postmarked by November 1," said Lavinski. "They have to give them 10 days to arrive before they begin counting." Lavinski said the county has received about 7,800 absentee ballots, not all of them are in the assembly district in question. Rabbitt's attorney, John Buckheit, said her campaign crew is "extremely elated." "This shows the voice of the people," said Buckheit. "We are confident that when the absentees are counted, Annie Rabbitt will win." If Rabbitt's numbers hold up, she will take office up in Albany on January 1, vacating her Town Board seat. Lavinski said the board would appoint a replacement to fill Rabbitt's term, which ends in December, 2005. The appointed councilman would run next November. Rep. Sue Kelly kept her seat in the United States House of Representatives, beating Democratic challenger Michael Jaliman by a two-to-one margin. This helped maintain the Republican majority in the House. Residents in Orange County chose President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over Senators John Kerry and John Edwards in the presidential race by about 15,000. Mills couldn't carry Orange County, losing to Schumer by nearly 20,000 votes. Statewide, it was much worse. Unofficially, Mills received about 25 percent of the vote state-wide to Schumer's 70 percent.