ALBANY COUNTY — Although the Montgomery County Board of Elections still has to complete its count after being delayed by an election-related lawsuit, certified Albany County and Schenectady County results show Democratic incumbent Angelo Santabarbara ahead of his Republican challenger, Paul DeLorenzo, in the 111th Assembly District race.

Santabarbara has 30,323 votes to DeLorenzo’s 21,011. 

This would be a fifth term for Santabarbara, an engineer, who was first elected in 2012. DeLorenzo, a lawyer, was making his first run for office.

The 111th Assembly District is made up of Montgomery County and parts of Albany and Schenectady counties, with Montgomery County supplying 28,911 of the district’s 77,599 active registered voters this cycle. 

“We’re in the process of holding a count because of the lawsuit that’s out there,” Republican Elections Commissioner Terrance Smith told The Enterprise this week, referring to suits filed in the 46th State Senate District race. A judge declared Michelle Hinchey the district’s senator-elect on Nov. 25.

In Montgomery County, 17,668 ballots (61 percent) were counted by Nov. 9, with Santabarbara winning 9,048 (51 percent) of these votes against DeLorenzo’s 8,034 (45 percent). There were 571 blank ballots (3 percent).

In Schenectady County, which has 44,499 active registered voters in the 111th district, 32,260 ballots (72 percent) were received in time to be counted. Santabarbara received 19,425 Schenectady County votes (60 percent) while DeLorenzo received 11,488 (37 percent). Of the ballots received, 1,185 (3 percent) were left blank on that race’s line. 

In Albany County, which has 4,189 active registered voters in the district, 3,341 ballots (80 percent) were received in time to be counted. Santabarbara received 1,850 Albany County votes (55 percent) while DeLorenzo received 1,489 (45 percent).

Blank ballots are not accounted for in Albany County’s certified results, but the New York State Board of Elections Nov. 9 results indicate there were 72 blank ballots (2 percent) in Albany County’s tentative total. 

Enrollment in District 111 includes 30,195 Democrats and 21,554 Republicans, according to the state’s board of elections as of Feb. 21. An additional 20,195 registered voters in District 111 are not enrolled in any political party. The rest of the 80,741 registered voters in the district belong to small parties with the Independence Party topping the list at 4,739 followed by the Conservative Party at 3,009. The other small parties have fewer than 1,000 residents enrolled.

Santabarbara — who ran on the Democratic, Conservative, and Working Families lines — currently holds a 9,312-vote lead over DeLorenzo with 11,243 active registered voters in Montgomery still unaccounted for. 

To pull ahead by a single vote, DeLorenzo would need to have won votes from 83 percent of all those active voters, a nigh-impossible feat considering the propensity in this election of Democrats to vote by mail relative to Republicans, and the slim chance that all remaining voters filled out a ballot. For every ballot unreceived or left blank, the rate DeLorenzo needs for a victory goes up. 

Santabarbara received the bulk of all the late-count votes, earning 4,345 to DeLorenzo’s 1,157 — a rate of 79 percent. 

The state processed a record number of absentee ballots this election after it expanded the requisite conditions to include concern about contracting the coronavirus, which allowed every registered New York voter to request an absentee ballot, normally reserved for those who are absent from their home county on Election Day or are thwarted by an already-acquired illness. 

Santabarbara massively outraised DeLorenzo during the campaign, acquiring $110,100 from 90 donors for an average contribution of $1,223 per donor, compared to DeLorenzo’s $14,795, culled from 39 donors, which breaks down to $379 per donor. Santabarbara’s largest donations came from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, which made two donations for a total of $65,300.