Republicans, Democrats and Conservatives went to the polls last week to elect their respective candidates to run in November for the currently-vacant position of Madison County Court judge.

The Republicans had a large voter turnout, with nearly 3,000 ballots cast in the race between Patrick O’Sullivan and Kathleen Rapasadi, while Democrats had a little more than 1,000 voters choose between Marian J. Cerio and Suzanne Knight DeBottis. The Conservative Party mustered under 100 votes in their race between O’Sullivan and Rapasadi.

By the end of the night last Thursday, Sept. 10, the Madison County Board of Elections had declared O’Sullivan the winner on the Republican side, with 1,609 votes to Rapasadi’s 1,244 (and 24 write-in votes); Cerio defeated Knight DeBottis 671 to 360 (with 23 write-in votes) to be the Democrat nominee; while Rapasadi defeated O’Sullivan for the Conservative Party line 61 to 38.

Cerio has already received the endorsement of the Green and Working Families parties for the November election, and will be on the ballot under those lines as well.

The November election will now be a three-way race between O’Sullivan, Cerio and Rapasadi. If either Cerio or Rapasadi are elected, it would be the first time a woman was chosen to serve as county court judge since Madison County was founded in 1806.