Peter Vazquez and Bob Zinck will have to wait until Tuesday to see who gets a shot to pry the 138th Assembly District seat from Democratic hands.
The Monroe County Board of Elections, at the end of the tally on Tuesday night, had Vazquez ahead by 19 votes. According to the Monroe County GOP, Vazquez and Zinck were separated by six votes after the absentee ballots that have been received were counted. There are more absentee ballots that will be counted on Tuesday, September 20, and that will decide who moves on to face Democrat Harry Bronson in the general election on November 8.
"It's not over 'til it's over," Zinck said. "I know there's some absentee ballots out there and we're going to see where we end up."
If Vazquez is victorious, it will be the third time he will face Bronson. In 2012, he lost by nearly 12,000 votes; in 2014, he lost by less than 4,000 votes.
Vazquez says he has been gaining ground in the previous general elections he ran in, in this district.
"You know I ran in ’12 and I got 34 percent of the vote,we came up from nowhere, we’d never been in politics; in ’14 we took 44 percent of the vote, and I think people in the district are starting to realize that I’m not really running against Bronson, but I’m running against a philosophy that’s crushing New York State and the country," Vazquez told WXXI News.
The 138th Assembly District includes a portion of the city of Rochester, along with the towns of Henrietta and Chili.