Two former Williamsville mayors scored landslide victories Tuesday to claim seats on the Village Board in a special election that was seen as a referendum on the controversial policies and statements of Mayor Deb Rogers.
Unofficial results after the polls closed at 9 p.m. showed Dan DeLano receiving 699 votes and Mary Lowther with 696. Two of the mayor’s allies, current Deputy Mayor Dave Sherman and political newcomer John Ariola, had 269 and 246 votes, respectively.
Interest in the race was so high that poll workers at one point ran out of ballots at Village Hall.
Village officials had pre-ordered 500 ballots, said Keaton DePriest, Williamsville’s community development director, at least 100 more than the village ordered for last year’s trustee election.
Voting started at noon Tuesday and by about 4:30 p.m. all the ballots were used up, DePriest said. Following guidance from Erie County elections officials, village employees began to print out at least 100 extra ballots, DePriest said.
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Village administrators also reached out to the county Board of Elections to ask for additional ballots, a request that was delayed. As of 5:30, the village still was awaiting those ballots and approximately 100 copied ballots were cast. They were considered valid and were counted, DePriest said.
Some residents briefly were delayed in voting but, he said, “nobody was turned away.”
The contrasts among the four candidates in the hotly-contested race were clear.
Lowther and DeLano touted their years of experience in village government. They said they were running to refocus the Village Board on issues that matter more to Williamsville residents.
Under Mayor Rogers, the board has taken strong stances against state and county Covid-19 restrictions, including a recent discussion of an emergency public health order that spurred comparisons to authoritarian human-rights violations.
DeLano is a former trustee, deputy mayor and mayor who opted not to seek re-election in 2019. He is now chair of Williamsville’s Tree Board.
Lowther is the first woman to serve as mayor, from 2005 to 2011, and previously served as a village trustee. She is now village historian and president of the Williamsville Historical Society.
Sherman is a longtime Williamsville volunteer firefighter and former Amherst town historian who served for decades as a reporter and editor for the Bee Newspapers.
A financial adviser, Ariola highlighted his credentials as a small-business owner. He has not previously run for office, but has shown up at recent Village Board meetings to decry Covid-19 masking requirements and other health regulations.
Tuesday’s special election was for the one year remaining in the terms of the seats now filled by Sherman and Carson. The winners must run again for a full term in 2023, as will the mayor.
Williamsville was not the only local village with an election Tuesday.
In Lewiston, Republican Anne Welch won a second term as mayor and enjoyed a bigger cushion in a contentious race than she had four years ago.
Welch defeated Democrat Claudia Marasco, 367 to 315, in unofficial totals announced shortly before 9:30 p.m. to a crowd of about 35 people at the village recreation center. In 2018, Welch, a former village clerk, was elected by just three votes over Bruce Sutherland.
“It’s nice to have that little cushion,” the mayor said, after pledging to help push more projects to completion in her second term, including renovation of the historic Frontier House, improvements to Academy Park and installation of electric vehicle charging stations at several sites.
Also elected Tuesday were two village trustees, Democrat Tina Coppins, who ran unsuccessfully for trustee in 2018, and incumbent Victor Eydt, a Republican who serves as Welch’s deputy mayor. Coppins had 362 votes, Eydt 353; Democrat Savana Bevacqua, 330; and Republican Jim Fittante, 310.
