The biggest primary races are in the Democratic party, where DEMOCRATIC REGISTERED VOTERS will be deciding between Cynthia Nixon and Andrew Cuomo for Governor and Kathy Hochul and Jumaane Williams for Lt. Governor. There’s also a crowded field of four candidates for Attorney General – including Sean Patrick Maloney, Letitia James, Leecia Eve, and Zephyr Teachout.

CONSERVATIVE REGISTERED VOTERS will be picking that party’s candidate for Sheriff choosing between Joseph Gerace and James Quattrone. Also, Ripley Conservative voters will pick between John Hamels and Lawrence Freligh for that town’s Conservative candidate.

· REPUBLICAN REGISTERED VOTERS IN BUSTI (Election District 3 Only) will choose between Randall Holcomb, Susan Drago and Douglas Schutte as to which of the two will represent them as party members for that election district on the GOP County Committee.

· INDEPENDENCE VOTERS IN PORTLAND AND RIPLEY will be deciding between Daniel Thompson, Michelle Patterson, and Thomas DeJoe for which two will be the Independence Party candidates for two open seats in November. In Ripley, Hamels and Freligh will again face off, but this time on the Independence line.

· REFORM PARTY is showcasing an Attorney General nomination runoff between Nancy Sliwa, Mike Diederich and Christopher Garvey. None of the three candidates are cross endorsed and only the winner will move on to the November ballot. In a party rule oddity, any voter not affiliated with one of the state’s other seven major parties may vote to decide the Reform Party candidate.

The state’s primary normally would fall on Tuesday Sept. 11th. But with that date being the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the second day of Rosh Hashanah, state lawmakers decided to move the primary back two days.

Polls are open Noon to 9 p.m. Thursday.

People unsure of their party affiliation can visit votechautauqua.com  and click on “Personal Voter Lookup” to access the voter’s current voting record.

Lakewood Village Hall

LAKEWOOD – The Jamestown Post-Journal says the mayor of Lakewood is denying that she instructed the Chautauqua Lake Association to conduct water tests for herbicide use off the village shores of Chautauqua Lake in June.

During Monday night’s village board meeting, Mayor Cara Birrittieri responded to accusations from two village board members in August that she was responsible for the $853 charge.

The alleged spending was brought to light two weeks ago in a letter to the village clerk by trustees Ellen Barnes and Randall Holcomb after Barnes said CLA Executive Director Douglas Conroe said Birrittieri ordered the tests.

Birrittieri expressed her confusion as to why Conroe would say that. Conroe declined to comment when reached by The Post-Journal after the trustees’ meeting.

She also called the accusations against her “absurd” and demanded that she receive apologies from Barnes and Holcomb.

Following the discussion the board voted 3 to 2 in favor of paying the charge to the CLA.

The testing that was done by the CLA came back negative.

Democratic challenger for Lakewood Mayor, Cara Birrittieri

LAKEWOOD – The mayor’s race for the village of Lakewood is too close to call.

Democratic challenger Cara Birrittieri leads incumbent David Wordelmann by 20 votes – although absentee ballots could change the outcome. The official results will be known within two weeks once all absentees are counted. A total of 95 absentee ballots were sent out with 50 having already been sent back to the board of elections.

LAKEWOOD VILLAGE TRUSTEES

Randall Holcomb (R) 578 and Ellen Barnes (R) 516 were elected, with current board member John Jablonski III (D) losing his reelection bid.

Meanwhile, the supervisor of the second largest town in southern Chautauqua County has easily won reelection.

Busti Republican Jesse Robbins defeated challenger Democratic Lee Fischer by a vote of 906 to 598. The Busti Town Council was also contested, with Republican James Andrews and Democrat Rudy Mueller being the top two vote-getters. Republican Robert Schultz was the odd man.

Also for Busti in the Town Justice race, William Geary (R) 930 defeated Gary Segrue (D) 682.