Daniel Brakewood is a familiar name and face to voters in Port Chester and the wider Rye Town, but in Harrison he's just another Democrat.

As Republicans swept the Harrison town elections with victories in the supervisor and council races, Brakewood said he believes his campaign was hurt by voters who were unfamiliar with him and voted along party lines.

Brakewood ran against Republican David Gelfarb for the county legislature District 6 seat. District 6 includes a section of Harrison, as well as Port Chester and Rye Brook.

Votes tallies suddenly came to a halt last night with little explanation from the Westchester County Board of Elections. Commissioners haven't addressed the problems, but anecdotal reports from towns across Westchester indicate widespread problems with optical voting machines and not enough technicians to repair break-downs.

Paper jams, error messages and human error were some of the across-the-board issues that caused problems county-wide, according to Tajian Jones, assistant to Reginald Lafayette, Democratic elections commissioner.

"There were also a limited number of technicians to help," she said.

Gelfarb holds a lead of almost 350 votes according to the latest tally, with seven districts yet-to-be counted. But four of those districts are in Harrison, a fact that doesn't bode well for Brakewood.

"It obviously doesn't look good because the tide is against my campaign in Harrison," he said.

His opponent has been equally cautious, heading home from a Republican rally in Port Chester late last night without declaring victory. Gelfarb described the margin as "very, very close" and said any declaration would be premature without results from the remaining districts.

In Harrison, Mayor Joan Walsh, an incumbent Democrat, was voted out of office as residents casted votes for Republican Ron Belmont by a decisive margin. The results were so heavily in favor of Republicans across-the-board that the Brakewood campaign may have been hurt by voters marking out ballots along party lines.

Brakewood joined fellow Democrats at a North Main Street restaurant on election night, compiling poll data transmitted by campaign volunteers. But the unofficial results from the Board of Elections don't identify which districts have been counted, making it difficult to predict how the remaining tallies will add up.

"Even the results I have don't match what the county website's showing, so it's kind of impossible to know exactly where we are," Brakewood said. "It doesn't look good, but we're waiting to see."

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