COMMENTARY
Bruce Andriatch: Counting up overload of electioneering
Over the next three weeks, you will constantly hear the names and see the faces of the men and women who are counting on your vote on Election Day. By Halloween, you will have heard so much campaign advertising that you may inadvertently be ending sentences by saying, “. . . and I approve this message.”
But to really understand election season in Erie County, you have to go inside the numbers:
• Number of elected positions on the ballot this year, according to the Erie County Board of Elections: 155.
• Number of candidates who have no opposition: 66.
• Number of town clerk jobs on the ballot: 9.
• Number of town clerk candidates running without opposition: 7.
• Number of towns where every candidate for every office is running without opposition: 2.
• Number of people who are seeking one of 18 highway superintendent positions: 26.
• Number of highway superintendents accused of criminal wrongdoing in the last two years: 3.
• Including this year, number of years in a row Kevin Stocker has run for Kenmore village or Tonawanda town justice: 3.
• Number of times Stocker’s campaign has been associated with “misleading” campaign materials in his advertising: 2.
• Number of candidates seeking four seats on the Tonawanda City Council: 9.
• Number of candidates seeking eight elected positions in Holland: 9.
• Number of candidates who use Sr., Jr., III or IV as part of their official name on the ballot: 16.
• Number of Jr.’s: 9.
• Number of years Bill Kindel, the Conservative Party candidate for Amherst town supervisor, served on the Town Board: 23.
• Number of years since he lost his last election and said he wasn’t sure if he would ever run for office again: 2.
• Number of independent nominating parties, according to the Board of Elections: 10.
• Number that have the word “First” or “1st” in their names: 5.
• Number that have the word “Taxpayers” in their names: 2.
• Number that have “Taxpayers” and “First” in their name: 1.
• Number of candidates running for the Collins Town Board: 5.
• Number of votes Collins Town Board candidate Janet Vogtli got to finish as top vote-getter in the town’s Independence Party primary last month: 7.
• Number of lines that will carry the name of incumbent Jeffrey P. Markello in the race for Aurora town justice: 5.
• Number of people who voted for Anthony DiFilippo IV in the Working Families primary for town justice in Aurora, which allowed DiFilippo to remain on the ballot: 2.
• Number of town supervisor candidates who won as first-time candidates in 2005 after promising reform: 4.
• Of those, number who are seeking re-election this year: 1.
• Number of people who are running against the only incumbent in the group, Steven Walters of Hamburg: 2.
• Number of polling places that will be open in Alden on Election Day: 4.
• Number of polling places open in Alden when voters cast ballots on whether to downsize the Town Board from five members to three: 1.
• Number of hours the polls will be open in Alden on Election Day: 15.
• Number of hours the polls were open the day of the downsizing vote: 8.
• Number of Town Board and town supervisor candidates facing opposition in Alden this year: 0.
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