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MAYVILLE, NY (WNY News Now) – Wednesday marks the midway point for early voting for the GOP primary and special election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. We are breaking down who is on your ballot.
Any eligible voter in Chautauqua County can vote in the special election, which has Democrat Max Della Pia and Republican Joe Sempolinski facing off to complete the rest of the term of now retired Congressman Tom Reed.
Republican voters however, will receive two ballots, one for the special election and another for the GOP Primary, which has candidates Nick Langworthy and Carl Paladino facing off. Local Jamestown Pharmacist Richard Moon is also running a write-in campaign.
“We have crime, we have out of control spending, meaning burdens on taxpayers, and those probably are our two of the most focused issues today,“ explained Carl Paladino. “We have drug problems, we have nonsense going on, scams like climate change going on.”
Meanwhile, Nick Langworthy, who has viewpoints similar to Paladino, differentiates on his local connections to Chautauqua County, and the Southern Tier.
“It’s a huge honor for me to be running for Congress, here where I come from,“ stated Langworthy. “I was born in WCA Hospital, my entire extended family is throughout Chautauqua County. I’m a son of the Southern Tier, but most of my roots are right here firmly planted in the Jamestown orbit.”
Write-in candidate Richard Moon, while not officially on the ballot, is touting that he is the only true local candidate.
“Out of the two Republican Candidates that are officially on the ballot, I am the only one that lives in the district, even though I’m not one of those two, which is why I need the write-in,“ explained Moon. “One lives in south Buffalo, and one lives in Niagara County, and even the Democrat doesn’t live in this district either, that’s going to be on the final ballot, so there’s a lot of people treating us like we don’t matter.”
The winner of the GOP Primary will face Democrat Max Della Pia in the general election this fall.
Currently, around 500 voters have cast their ballots early. Early voting continues until Sunday, August 21st, with the main election on Tuesday August 23rd.
Early voting polling sites include the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, the Chautauqua Mall in Lakewood, Board of Elections Offices in Mayville and Chautauqua County Fairgrounds in Dunkirk.
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