“A lot of hard work went into this campaign. Me and my team have been on the ground since June, said Frank Smierciak via Zoom the day after the General Election.
The race for New York’s 143rd Assembly District for which Smierciak is the republican challenger is still too close to call.
The district includes Cheektowaga, the town and village of Lancaster, Depew, and Sloan.
Smierciak currently holds the lead against democratic incumbent, Monica Wallace by 2,331 votes with 11,092 absentee ballots that still need to be counted.
“The district is more democrat over republican. However, a lot of democrats voted for me and I’m very happy about that,” Smierciak said.
Wallace declined our request for an interview. But in a statement she expressed confidence that absentee ballots would skew in her favor. "I'm encouraged by the high turnout in this election, and I'm hopeful that the total vote count will show that the people of the 143rd Assembly District chose me to continue to represent them in the Legislature.”
Candidates running for the 146th Assembly District are also not claiming victory.
That district includes the town of Amherst and the village of Williamsville in Erie County, and the town of Pendleton in Niagara County.
Republican Challenger Robin Wolfgang trails Democratic Incumbent Karen McMahon by just 103 votes. There are still 16,686 absentee ballots across the two counties that need to be counted.
“The absentee votes will probably go like early voting did, and I really did well in the early vote. My opponent caught up on Election Day. And that’s what we thought would happen,” said McMahon.
“We just don’t know when this is going to be concluded. I think that’s the hardest part for me and what people need to realize is that this isn’t going to happen tomorrow,” Wolfgang said.
Niagara County will begin counting absentee ballots on November 12.
The Erie County Board of Elections will begin its process on November 17.
