Upper Chamber now 32 Republicans, to 30 Democrats

From Eric Dondero:

It's official. Mark Grisanti of Buffalo has confirmed the local media in Western New York, that he intends to formally change his party registration to Republican, and Caucus as a Republican if final election results declare him the winner. Gristanti's race is the only still-to-be-decided legislative race in New York State. However, his win now appears to be virtually assured.

From the Buffalo News "Grisanti’s loyalties lean toward Senate GOP -
Democrat could hold key to Albany power":

Grisanti confirmed late Tuesday his intention to caucus with Republicans if he is declared the winner of the contested race in the 60th District, even though a few hours earlier he was leaving the door open to siding with Senate Democrats.

“The Republican Party had faith in me from the start,” Grisanti said.

The registered Democrat also announced his intention to switch his party enrollment to Republican.

Ballot Machine problems in tight race?

The race remained undecided partly due to some malfunctions in a ballot machine.

a Grisanti victory is no guarantee, although he does lead the two-term Democratic incumbent, Antoine M. Thompson, by 597 votes.

Thompson gained a net of one vote by being credited with 208 of the 417 emergency ballots counted by the Erie County Board of Elections. Grisanti received 207, and two of the ballots were write-ins for other candidates.

Democratic Elections Commissioner Dennis E. Ward explained that emergency ballots are valid ballots that for some reason were not counted by the machine, perhaps because the machine was not working at the time or a disabled voter could not feed the machine.

Emergency ballots are one of four categories that are included in the final vote count. The others are the unofficial machine tabulation, absentee and military ballots, and affidavit ballots.

Grisante's win, and decision to stay with the GOP returns control of the Senate to Republicans. They had lost it in 2008. Previously the GOP held control of the NY Senate for 60 years.