MAYVILLE - The Chautauqua County Board of Elections has announced the certified final vote totals for the Nov. 6 General Election. A total of 53,183 voters turned out for the election and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney carried the county with 53 percent of the total vote. In 2008, there were 60,087 county voters who showed up at the polls and in 2004 a total of 61,243 votes were cast in the county.
This year's ballot counts included 1,339 affidavit ballots and 3,609 absentee voters. The total included 114 military and an additional 105 federal voters who are U.S. citizens with overseas addresses, and having had former residences in Chautauqua County.
In New York state, an absentee ballot is issued to any voter who will is absent from the county on election day or physically unable to go to the polls.
An affidavit ballot is offered to every voter, without exception, who resides in the election district but is not in the poll book for any reason. A total of 422 of the 1,339 cast affidavit ballots were not counted. All voters who did cast an affidavit ballot will be notified by mail if their ballots were or were not counted.
"The voter turnout was significantly below average for a presidential year," commented Democratic Election Commissioner Norman P. Green. "There just wasn't much excitement at the top of the ticket in our state. It was a given that New York would be voting Democratic for president."
Republican Election Commissioner Brian C. Abram said that lack of presidential signs was the complaint of most voters calling the election office.
"Every other call seemed to be a voter asking where to find Romney or Obama signs and there were few to be found in the county and very limited places to direct them to go," he stated.
Final election results can be found at www.votechautauqua.com and detailed election district results are available at the historical election result link on the webpage.
