ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Republican challenger La'Ron Singletary has conceded to incumbant Democrat Joe Morelle in the race for New York's 25th Congressional District.
The former Rochester police chief initially called for an investigation into what he called "unprecedented irregularities" in the election process after software issues created a delay in reporting the results of the race. He now says he concedes after the Monroe County Board of Elections explained what went wrong in publishing the results on its website.
The candidate released this statement explaining his decision:
On Tuesday, the numbers went back and forth in the high-profile 25th Congressional District race, but in the early morning hours, Morelle declared victory over Singletary.
The race was called in favor of Morelle around 2 a.m.
Polls closed at 9 p.m. Tuesday and the election results were not showing up on the Monroe County Board of Elections website. Republican BOE Commissioner Lisa Nicolay confirmed the issues with the election night returning software.
It took a couple of hours and then the results were made available in a PDF format. Eventually, late in the evening, the system caught up.
The Board of Elections originally released this statement addressing the issues:
On Wednesday, GOP Commissioner Nicolay said the results of the election are not in question. According to her, website interference was the problem on election night. But both Nicolay and the Democratic commissioner say the BOE's voting machines are aging and they would like new ones.
The entire ordeal made for a strange and late night for everyone.
"The Monroe County BOE does an amazing job," said Morelle. There were technical issues tonight. I think the thing that raised the anxiety level, as you know, you campaign for months and months and finally comes to a close, votes are finalized at 9 o’clock, and then you kind of expect OK let’s see what this all about, and then you wait and wait for a couple more hours before you get numbers. But yeah, I’m gratified and I’m humbled to have the chance to go back to Washington and represent the greatest place on earth, Rochester, New York."
La'Ron Singletary did not make an appearance or make any comments at the Republican headquarters on election night, only sending out a statement saying "several issues came into question regarding the validity of ballots and how they were accounted for and recorded."
To see the rest of our election results, click here.