Hilltown winners
Election results from absentee ballots
HILLTOWNS Election results are in for Knox and Rensselaerville after absentee ballots were counted last week.
Democrats still dominate in Knox although, in two close races, Republican incumbents retained their posts.
Councilwoman Patricia Gage and Town Clerk Kimberly Swain, who had held slight leads over their opponents, will keep their seats.
After the Nov. 6 election, Gage in a four-way race for two town board seats had garnered just 27 more votes than Democrat Jeff Landauer, a former Knox highway superintendent.
Gage, the GOP chair for Knox, received 20 absentee votes, and Landauer received 13 votes.
Mary Ellen Nagengast, a Democrat making her first run for the town board and the top vote-getter in the election, garnered 14 votes, and Republican incumbent Joseph Best got 14 votes. The tally shows Nagengast with 28 percent of the vote, Gage with 25 percent, Landauer with 24 percent, and Best with 23 percent.
In her re-election bid for town clerk, Swain had just 10 more votes than her opponent, Democrat Deborah Liddle. Liddle had been town clerk from 2000 to 2006 until Swain defeated her in another close race two years ago.
Swain got 18 absentee votes to Liddles 15, bringing Swains tally to 501 and Liddles to 488.
In Rensselaerville, Democratic incumbent Gary Chase, making his third run, will keep his seat on the town board. Chase, a corrections officer, had held a slight lead 45 votes over Alynn Wright, a Republican making his first run for office.
Chase, in a four-way race for two seats, garnered 30 absentee votes, and Wright got 18 votes.
The board majority will swing from Republicans to Democrats on Jan. 1 as Democrat Marie Dermody, making her first run for office was the top vote-getter; she received 35 absentee votes. Republican incumbent Myra Dorman garnered 16 votes.
The tally shows Dermody at 29 percent of the vote, Chase at 27 percent, Wright at 23 percent, and Dorman at 21 percent.
Official results for the election will be posted on the board of elections website in about one week, according to Matthew Clyne, Democratic commissioner of the Albany County Board of Elections.
