TOWN OF FISHKILL – A race to fill an unexpired term on the Fishkill Town Board will be decided after all absentee ballots are counted.
When the polls closed Tuesday night, Kevin McCarthy was leading Kenya Gadsden by 830 votes. Gadsden was appointed to the board in January to fill the vacancy created when Doug McHoul resigned to take a seat on the county legislature.
McCarthy was the chairman of the town’s Democratic Committee until recently when he switched his registration to the Independence Party. He appeared on the Republican and Conservative lines on the ballot.
Gadsden had unsuccessfully run as a Democrat against Republican Dutchess County Clerk Brad Kendall in 2019 before being appointed to the town board. Running as an incumbent, Gadsden secured the Democrat, Independence, and Working Families party lines on the ballot.
As of Tuesday night, the Dutchess County Board of Elections had received 2,296 absentee ballots that could change the outcome of the race. Of those paper ballots, 1,136 were submitted by registered Democrats compared to 458 ballots from registered Republicans. Absentee ballots from 35 registered Conservatives are at the board of elections along with 123 Independence ballots, four Green ballots, one Libertarian, and three Working Families ballots. 536 voters that are not affiliated with a political party also returned ballots.
McCarthy is optimistic about the race. “I am feeling good. I feel my message of accountability, open government, and community involvement resonated with the electorate across the political spectrum so I feel surprisingly calm at this point.” The absentee ballots are not scheduled to be counted immediately, according to McCarthy. “Unfortunately being so far down-ballot my race is going to have to wait until next week for the final call.”
Gadsden did not return requests for comment.
