NORWICH – It was a long, labor intensive evening at the Chenango County Board of Election’s vote reception headquarters at the Eaton Center. The BOE leases space there for storing districts’ voting machines, for ballots and supplies, for receiving results and for the connecting to the county’s mainframe to tally the results and put them online.

The final results came in by U-Haul truck well after 11:30 p.m. as inspectors had to wait for a driver from Lincklaen, the furthest town from the county’s seat. Lincklaen voters there were threatened by a bear spotted in a tree outside the polls, but a slight operator error with a voting machine was the true cause for the delay.

Early decisions were received from the Town of Smyrna, where the GOP nominated Michael Khoury to be their candidate in the general election in November. After defeating his two challengers, the interim Town of Smyrna Supervisor said he was “very appreciative of the encouragement and kind words” of everyone he had spoken to over the past month while campaigning for town supervisor.

“I hope to continue to earn the support of the people of Smyrna in the general election,” he said. Khoury won 107 of the votes, against challengers: John Grosso with 24 and Gerald Parry Sr. with 44. Parry will appear on the ballot in November under the Independence line.