RESULTS: India Walton seeks to defeat current mayor Byron Brown for a 2nd time in Buffalo

Buffalo Democratic mayoral nominee India Walton, left, and incumbent Mayor Byron Brown, who is running as a write-in candidate to keep his office, right

Joshua Bessex/AP

• India Walton is seeking to defeat incumbent Mayor Byron Brown for the 2nd time in Buffalo.
• Walton defeated Brown in a major upset victory in the Democratic primary for the mayor's office.
• Polls in New York closed at 9 pm ET. Follow along for live results.

Polls in New York will close at 9 pm ET, but the official results of the Buffalo mayor's race won't be known for weeks.

Officials are expected to release Walton's vote totals and all ballots with a mayoral candidate written in starting on election night.

But New York state law doesn't allow officials to begin actually counting write-in votes until 10 days after Election Day, with the Buffalo News reporting that Erie County officials will count write-in ballots along with absentee ballots starting 13 days after the election. The write-in totals for each candidate won't be official until the final canvassing and certification.

What's at stake:

India Walton, Buffalo's Democratic nominee for mayor, is seeking to clinch a victory against incumbent Mayor Byron Brown for the second time this year to lead New York's second-largest city.

Walton, a nurse, community organizer, and self-identified socialist, defeated four-term Mayor Brown in a major upset victory during the June primary election for the mayor's office - and she says it was no fluke.

"He has ignored his constituency. He has ignored the voters. Last summer he ignored our community while people suffered through a pandemic. He ignored protesters who were crying out for accountability in our police department, and that is the reason why I was able to be victorious," Walton told Insider's global editor-in-chief Nich Carlson in September. "Because he doesn't appreciate and has ignored, and not served our community for so long. And also because we worked hard."

But Brown is running a write-in campaign to hold onto the mayorship after losing a months-long legal fight to get his name on the general election ballot as an independent candidate on the "Buffalo Party" line. In the weeks leading up to the election, Brown and his team have been giving out stamps with his name to voters to use to mark their ballots for him, as is legal under New York law. (Stickers, however, are banned because of their potential to jam up ballot scanners).

"When I was elected in 2005, I promised that I would work to revitalize our City, build a safer, smarter, stronger Buffalo and ensure that every community shares in our opportunity and our success. And we've made incredible progress," Brown says on his campaign website. "I'm running in the General Election because there is far too much at stake to stop now. We cannot afford to turn back Buffalo's progress."

The Buffalo mayor's race has become the latest flashpoint in a growing trend of young, progressive candidates like Walton directly challenging and defeating incumbent politicians aligned with New York's Democratic political establishment like Brown, a former State Democratic Party chairman and ally of disgraced ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo.

"I believe that he had his chance with the voters," Walton previously told Insider of Brown. "He has been a Democrat in elected office for nearly three decades. He was the former chair of the state Democratic Party. So for him to try and make the case that he is now some kind of independent candidate is ridiculous."

The Walton-Brown redux has also caused friction and awkwardness within top New York Democrats.

Jay Jacobs, the chair of the state Democratic Party, got himself in hot water when, in explaining why he hadn't endorsed Walton, invoked Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke as another figure who he wouldn't feel obligated to endorse if he were the Democratic nominee for a mayorship.

Despite his subsequent apology and attempts at clarification, Jacobs' remarks sparked public condemnation from high-profile New York political figures and some calls for his resignation.

An endorsement of Walton from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer shook up the race in the buildup to election day, with the rest of New York's Democratic political establishment, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, mostly steering clear of public backing the the party nominee.

"India is an inspiring community leader, mother, nurse and a lifelong Buffalonian with a clear progressive vision for her hometown," Schumer said in his endorsement, which reverberated around Empire State political circles.

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