Village of Warwick election will stand

Warwick — The village election results from March 21 are official. The Village Board met last Wednesday to discuss among other topics the validity of the previous week’s election. Although Mayor Michael Newhard ran unopposed, there was a write-in campaign for Trustee Stephen L. Pascal, who was also running for re-election for his trustee seat. About an hour before the polls closed, “Pascal for Mayor” was found written inside voting machine 1, which is used by voters whose last names begin with the letters A through L. The tampering was reported to Warwick police and the machine was shut down. Pascal received 13 write-in votes for mayor on that machine, and a total of 44 on both machines, not enough to unseat the popular incumbent who received 402 votes. Pascal lost the election for trustee. “The outcome of the election wouldn’t be any different if we didn’t accept that poll,” said Newhard. “The issue was advertising within the polling booth. There are rules about where political advertising can be. It certainly can’t be in the polling booth.”