UPDATE, Nov. 4: Voters and County Legislature candidates in District 3 will have to wait a few more days until they know the final election results.

Republican incumbent Bill Meyer leads Democratic challenger Ed Szczesniak by a mere 117 votes, according to the Onondaga County Board of Elections. The Post-Standard reports the board still has 135 absentee ballots to count. And those are enough to change the outcome.

In a close race, Meyer was declared the winner on Election night.

In a nail-biter, Republican William “Bill” Meyer is staying put in his District 3 seat in the Onondaga County Legislature.

Meyer refused to comment for this story. But his party’s chairman, John DeSpirito, reassures the GOP that the people of Central New York approve with what they are doing.

 “It shows the people do have the confidence in us.” (John DeSpirito, chairman, Onondaga County Republican Party)

As of 10:45 PM on Election night, unofficial results show the incumbent Bill Meyer has defeated Democratic challenger Ed Szczesniak. District 3 includes Cicero and parts of Manlius. This is Meyer’s 10^th consecutive victory.

With 100 percent of the votes counted, the Onondaga County Election Board shows Meyer with 51 percent of the vote. Szczesniak received 48.9 percent of the vote. That adds up to 2,746 votes for Meyer and 2,630 votes Szczesniak.

Meyer, a Cicero resident, is the legislature chairman. Since 2001, his seat has been challenged four of the last five elections. This was the first time he faced Szczesniak, a long-time veteran of Democratic party politics. In the race for campaign money, Meyer didn’t raise as much as Szczesniak. Since the start of January 2009 until November 2, Meyer was out-raised by about $12,000, according to the New York State Board of Elections.

All 19 seats in the Onondaga County Legislature were up for re-election.  At the start of Election Night, the Republicans held an 11-to-8 majority in the County legislature. Not all of the votes in each contested legislature race had been counted by midnight. GOP chairman DeSpirito said he expects the Republicans will maintain their  majority. This year, 12 seats were contested.

Meyer’s District 3 district has about 800 more registered Republicans than registered Democrats.

At the polls on Tuesday, some voters at the South Bay Fire House in Cicero said they based their vote on familiarity.

At the South Bay Fire House in Cicero, Bill Hard of Bridgeport was a case in point. He voted Republican.

“I’ve been in this area for a long time. I know a lot of the people. M voteprobably went with the people that I know that have done a good job.” (Bill Hard, Republican voter of Bridgeport)

Also at the fire house polling station, Bill Leach also voted for Meyer on this chilly morning.

“He’s been consistent and I liked his political philosophy.” (Bill Leach, Republican voter at South Bay Fire House)

Back at the Onondaga County Republican watch party Tuesday night, GPO chairman DeSpirito was happy with the results, and was  already looking forward to state races next year.

“Next year is going to be a very critical race for us.” (John DeSpirito, chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Party)

 I’m Chris Shepherd, reporting for Democracywise.

(Chris Shepherd is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in psychology.)

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