Buerkle won the 25th Congressional district Nov. 23 when Dan Maffei conceded the race after three weeks of ballot inspections and recounts. Buerkle won by 561 votes, less than three-tenths of 1 percent.
Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle has moved ahead of Rep. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, by 659 votes in the race for the 25th Congressional District.
The change for Buerkle comes after Buerkle won Wayne County 63 percent to Maffei’s 37 percent. That’s 15,429 votes for Buerkle to 9,191 for Maffei in Wayne County. Problems with new voting machines had delayed the vote count until Wednesday.
The district-wide total as of Wednesday was 99,594 votes for Buerkle and 98,935 for Maffei.
Before Wayne County’s results came in at about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Maffei was ahead Buerkle by 4 percentage points.
The winner will not be clear until the more than 10,000 absentee ballots are counted over the next three weeks.
As of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, with 100 percent of the vote counted in Onondaga County, the unofficial results showed Buerkle with 62,419 votes or 47 percent. Maffei had 72,323 or 54 percent of the vote, according to the Onondaga County Board of Elections.
The 25th Congressional District includes all of Onondaga and Wayne Counties, the northern part of Cayuga County, and the towns of Webster, Penfield and Irondequoit in Monroe County.
Control of the House of Representatives was at stake in Tuesday’s election. Before the election, Democrats had 258 seats to 177 for Republicans. All 435 seats were up for re-election.
In 2008, Maffei became the first Democrat to occupy the seat in 28 years.
Buerkle, 59, is a former nurse and an assistant state attorney who served on the Syracuse Common Council.
At the polls on Tuesday, some voters gave hints of the discontent with incumbents that made the race so close.
At LaFayette Commons Office Building polling place, Doug Shurtleff said he is a conservative and voted for Buerkle. “I think she is going to be a conservative in regards to spending and the size of our government. I think she fits the mentality that fits the values of government that I have,” Shurtleff said. “I just thought she was the best.”
At the Doubletree Hotel, Buerkle had her own small room reserved for supporters gathered waiting to hear the results. Some guests sat in the two round tables that occupied the room- one decorated with flowers, the other with three white, blue, and red balloons. Others remained standing. As the votes showed her trailing, she did not make a public statement.
(Bianca Graulau is a junior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism and political science.)
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