Now that Election Day is over, those political campaign yard signs - whether made of plastic film or Coroplast® - can be recycled in Tompkins County.  Metal sign holders and stakes can be recycled in the scrap metal area of the Recycling and Solid Waste Center.  there is no charge for recycling metals or plastics.

Lansing has a reputation for being conservative.  But Tuesday's election results tell a different story.  With the exception of the town's one local election for Town Clerk, Lansing voted for the Democrats over Republicans in every race.  Lansing voted decidedly Democratic Tuesday, more in synch with Tompkins County than the various voting districts it is a part of.  For example, Congressman Tom Reed won a clear victory over Democrat John Plumb with 58% of the vote district-wide.  70.82% of Tompkins County voters preferred Plumb, and Lansing voters were more in line with the county as a whole, voting nearly 2-1 for Plumb.

The same was true in the US Senate, State Senate and Assembly races, and Tompkins County District Attorney election.  When looking at the back-stories of the clerk campaign, it could be argued that mitigating circumstances in the clerk race skewed party voting.  Or, perhaps Lansing's reputation for conservative voting is limited to its own local elections.  Whatever the reason, incumbent clerk Debbie Munson (R) edged out challenger Tammy Morse (D) by winning 54.9% of votes Tuesday.

"I'm very happy with the outcome," Munson said the day after the election.  "I worked very very hard.  I knocked on a lot of doors for probably six or seven weeks.  I'm very happy to continue serving the residnets of Lansing."

That means Munson will fill the remaining three years of her predecessor's term as Town Clerk before the position goes up for a vote again.

Republican Pam Helming defeated Democrat Keenan Baldridge in her quest to fill Mike Nozzolio's New York State Senate seat, though Lansing favored Baldridge.

"Our Upstate way of life is worth fighting for and tonight the voters sent a clear message that they want a strong, common sense conservative to fight to clean up Albany and make our region a better place to live, work and raise a family," Helming said Tuesday night.  "Over the past seven months I have knocked on thousands of doors and visited with residents, community leaders and small business owners.  There are numerous issues facing our state and region and I have listened carefully to the concerns of those in our vast six county district.  We have much work to do. I’ll face it head-on and hit the ground running."

So how conservative is Lansing?  Hardly conservative at all.  Tuesday's results show that approximately two out of three Lansing voters prefer liberal candidates.

		Candidate		Nation Votes		NY State Votes		Tompkins County Votes		Lansing Votes
U. S. President
*		Clinton/Kaine		59,814,018		4,145,376		25,555		3,111
		Trump/Pence		59,611,678		2,638,135		9,647		1,529
U. S. Senator
		Charles E. Schumer				4,788,367		27,114		3442
		Wendy Long				1,865,347		8,127		1302
U. S. Congress
		John F. Plumb				108,163		25,945		3103
		Thomas W. Reed				149,439		10,660		1743
NY State Senate
		Kenan S. Baldridge				37,341				2,687
		Pamela A. Helming				69,331				1,890
NY State Assembly
		Barbara S. Lifton				32,179		26,304		3542
		Herbert Masser				14,109		9,828		1900
Tompkins County District Attorney
		Matthew Van Houten						23,500		2926
		Edward E. Kopko						8,160		1214
Lansing Town Clerk
		Tammy Morse								2,181
		Debbie Munson								2,657
* Trump won 279 electoral votes to Clinton's 228, making him the winner of the presidential election,    even though Clinton won the popular vote by about 200,000 votes nationwide.

All election results so far are 'unofficial results' because the final counts will take the Tompkins County Board of Elections about 25 days to tabulate all the write-in votes.

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