WPCNR PRIMARY NIGHT. By John F.  Bailey. September 9, 2003: In the Republican Primary for Common Council in White Plains tonight, unofficial counts phoned in from poll watchers to White Plains Republican Primary Night Headquarters with all Districts in show Tim Sheehan the top vote getter with 920 votes, Jeffrey Binder runnerup with 859, Dan Hickey the challenger of the Republican Ticket with 830 votes, and Rosa Munoz with 807. The margin is 23 votes. Jeffrey Binder noting the 27 vote margin at 10 P.M. with District 39 missing, said "This is too close to call, it's going to be decided by absentee ballots.

WAITING FOR THE LAST DISTRICT: Jeffrey Binder, left, and Tim Sheehan, at the keyboard at Dooley Mac's Tuesday night, waiting for the report of District 39, which showed that the Munoz-Hickey battle for the third slot on the Republican Council Ticket was going to Overtime. Absentee Ballots will determine whether Dan Hickey's bid for Council will forward. Photo by WPCNR News

Binder learned from Carolee Sunderland, the Co-Chair of the County Board of Elections that 142 absentee ballots were requested by Republicans and mailed out, and 44 were returned. Sheehan said moments ago in a telephone call to WPCNR, there was going to be a recanvass Friday. Binder said absentee ballots are due in postmarked one week from today. Only at that time, he said, would the ballots be opened at the Board of Elections.

In rough analysis of yet another close White Plains election, Binder and William Waterman each noted that Hickey was stronger in the Southend of White Plains, where what Sheehan characterized as "a strong, organized get out the vote campaign" helped Hickey do well. Hickey and Munoz were about even in the HIghlands area, and the Northend was stronger for Munoz.

OVERTIME! Scrawled final tally before the final District 39 numbers were acquired, confirming what Sheehan and Binder already knew, we're going to overtime! Photo by WPCNR News

Rough counts from the sign in sheets delivered from voting locations around the city, showed 3,368 Registered Republicans voted out of 7,800 registered. But, as Sheehan pointed out to his colleagues, you can't tell how many came out and just voted for their favorite, since each Republican could vote for three candidates. "It shows the importance of the crossover vote in White Plains," Sheehan said.

Binder and Sheehan were asked by WPCNR how this result, if Hickey held his lead, would alter their campaign. Would they campaign with Hickey as a Republican, or campaign against him, in favor of Munoz, whom if she is defeated eventually by Hickey, would still be on the Independence Party and Conservative lines?

Binder said, "Frankly, we had not thought about it."

Asked how yet another unanticipated delay meant the Republican Council crusaders would delay the start of serious campaigning against incumbent councilmen Benjamin Boykin and Robert Greer and first-time candidate Arnold Bernstein, Binder said "Our campaign will go forward regardless."

Sheehan, on the telephone announcing the final count, was obviously pained by the razor thin 23-vote margin that Rosa Munoz was trailing Hickey. He said there was no way to tell exactly whether the absentee ballots favored Munoz or Hickey.

As I departed Dooley Mac's out into the parking lot, I could not help but think of two other very close elections in White Plains in each of the last three years that went down to the wire and past it. The 2001 Hockley-Delgado election still has not been decided, and Councilman Glen Hockley serves by the grace of the Court of Appeals and the deliberateness of the Appellate Court in Brooklyn. The 2002 Democratic Primary featured Adam Bradley easing past Naomi Matusow by 23 votes only after two weeks of waiting for Absentee Ballots to be counted. Now, it's 2003, and we have another race not decided on Election Night.