By CRAIG FREILICH

With a very close result in the 116th District Assembly election, representatives of both major party candidates are positioning themselves to make challenges to improve their positions.

Challenges could delay the result beyond Nov. 26, when St. Lawrence County hopes to be able to certify their final count.

After Tuesday night’s vote counts, Republican challenger John Byrne of Cape Vincent led incumbent Democrat Addie Russell of Theresa by 117 votes, leaving the race up in the air until the routine re-canvass is completed and counts of absentee ballots in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties are made.

Apparently in preparation for any legal challenges, people representing both campaigns have filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests with St. Lawrence County elections officials for copies of every application for an absentee ballot “and copies, front and back, of every envelope for returned absentee ballots,” county Democratic Elections Commissioner Jenny Bacon said.

She said workers from the Board of Elections were busy at photocopying machines Friday complying with those requests.

People will be looking at those photocopies for deficiencies in the ballot applications and on the returned ballot envelopes for a chance to challenge and nullify votes that don’t go their way.

The 116th District includes the St. Lawrence County townships of Massena, Canton, Potsdam, Rossie, Macomb, DePeyster, Louisville, Waddington, Lisbon, Oswegatchie, Morristown, and Hammond and the City of Ogdensburg, plus northern Jefferson County not including Watertown

As of last Wednesday, the Election Day vote count throughout the district stood at 13,580 for Byrne and 13,463 for Russell.

Also as of Wednesday, St. Lawrence County had received back 937 absentee ballots out of the 1,290 that had been requested and sent out; Jefferson County had on hand 1,179 of the 1,489 absentee ballots they had sent out.

The more than 2,000 absentee ballots are easily more than enough to swing the final tally one way or the other.

To be counted, regular absentee ballots have to postmarked by Monday, Nov. 3 and returned to the Board of Elections by Nov. 12, and military ballots by Nov. 17.

Jefferson County elections officials said they will begin counting absentee ballots Nov. 12.

Also in the mix are affidavit ballots, filled out as provisional votes by people who showed up to vote but were not found on registration lists.

Bacon said the count of absentee ballots in St. Lawrence County will begin Nov. 17.

“We hope to certify our results by Nov. 26,” Bacon said.

That means that any decision on the Assembly race won’t be final before then – and depending on challenges, could come well after that.