Results are in for Amenia’s Republican Primary Election

AMENIA — The Republican Primary was contentious and close for those who sought office in the town of Amenia, as local voters headed to the Wassaic firehouse at 27 Firehouse Road on Tuesday, June 22, to decide who would be included in the November General Election.

Among the positions up for election in this year’s primary were town supervisor and two Town Board seats, along with  two seats on the Dutchess County Republican Committee. The town supervisor and Republican Committee members positions are both two-year terms while the Town Board seats are for four-years.

Current town Supervisor Victoria Perotti also ran on the Conservative line for her fifth term in the Republican Primary. Her opponent, political newcomer Julie Doran, also ran on the new independent party line Amenia Strong in the Republican Primary.

For the two open seats on the Town Board, incumbent Councilmembers James Morris and Michele Somogyi ran only on the GOP party line against newcomers James Vitiello and Brad Rebillard, who also ran on the Amenia Strong line. 

Meanwhile, incumbent Mark Doyle, Jean Rebillard and Apostolis Stefanopoulos all ran for the two open seats on the Dutchess County Republican Committee.

The polls were open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; once the votes were tallied, the Dutchess County Board of Elections posted the unofficial results onto its website, www.elections.dutchessny.gov.

Out of a total of 221 ballots for town supervisor, Perotti won with a majority of 114 votes while Doran received 107 votes. 

For the Town Board, Morris received the majority of votes with 122 out of a total of 221, followed by Rebillard with 106 votes, Vitiello with 105 votes and Somogyi with 101 votes.

The election for Dutchess County Republican Committee garnered a total of 49 ballots, 19 of which were undervotes, meaning those 19 votes weren’t counted because of an unclear marking on the ballot by the voter. 

Doyle won one of the seats with 33 votes while Rebillard and Stefanopoulos were tied with 23 votes each. 

Dutchess County Board of Elections (BOE) Republican Commissioner Erik Haight said the board hasn’t started counting the absentee ballots as of Wednesday, which could alter the total vote count and affect the outcome. He said the BOE is likely to start doing so on Tuesday, June 29.

For more information on the Amenia Republican Primary Election, go to the BOE website at www.elections.dutchessny.gov.