TOWN OF FISHKILL – Kenya Gadsden has defeated Kevin McCarthy in a race for a seat on the Fishkill Town Board that was too close to call on election night. On Monday, the Dutchess County Board of Elections finished counting paper ballots giving Kenya Gadsden the win by 101 votes.
When the polls closed on November 3, Gadsden was trailing challenger McCarthy by 830 votes, with 2,463 paper ballots that needed to be counted. More than 1,600 ballots were opened in favor of Gadsden with McCarthy garnering 691 of the opened ballots.
“Fishkill has spoken and they voted to keep Kenya,” said Gadsden who had been appointed to the board in January to fill a vacancy.
McCarthy accepted the count of the paper ballots, saying, “With approximately 12,000 votes and record turnout, 100 votes decided the contest. Although the count didn’t go my way it was great to see so many people involved in the process. Such a close race shows that every vote counts.”
