Brown declared victory, claiming a fifth four-year term, and
thanked his supporters after local media reported Walton had won
41% of the vote while 59% of the votes were for "write-in."
The write-in votes, however, will still need to be checked to
confirm that Brown's name has been indicated.
"At the very beginning, they said we couldn't win, it was
impossible to win as a write-in. But you can't ever count a
Buffalonian out," Brown said to applause from his supporters.
Walton, however, was not ready to concede.
"This is definitely not a concession speech," local TV station
WIVB quoted Walton as saying, adding that she said it was still
unclear who the "write-ins" were.
Asked by WIVB if he thought the number of write-in votes for
Brown was greater than the number of votes for Walton, Brown
answered: "That is correct."
Walton, a democratic socialist, community activist and nurse,
made national headlines when she won the Democratic primary in
June over Brown, who has served as the first African-American
mayor of New York state's second-largest city since 2005.
But with no Republican on the ballot, Brown, 63, campaigned as a
moderate alternative to the 39-year-old Walton, urging voters to
write his name on their ballots.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Peter
Cooney, Tim Ahmann and Kim Coghill)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](column_spacer.png)
|
|