Earlier in the week Lorraine Lopez wrote for Black Westchester, For the first time in the City of Yonkers’ history, there are two women of color running for the Yonkers City Court Judge position. This year there are three seats available and 5 candidates on the ballot. Two of these candidates are women of color, who are each attempting to make history as first African-American female(s) to serve on the bench in Yonkers.

Well the voters of Westchester showed they are ready for more diversity in their city courts, Tuesday in the Democratic Primary.

Verris Shako, the first African-American Female to be nominated to run for judge in Yonkers leads all candidates with 29% of the vote (3,669 votes).

Verris was the only won of the Yonkers Democratic Party nominated candidates to come in the top three in the race consisting of five candidates competing for the three available seats.

Karen N. Best, a 34-year-old Administrative Law Judge for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles and former Public Defender comes is with the second highest vote tally with 20% of the vote (2,542 votes).

If the lead holds after the tens of thousand mail-in ballots are counted Shako and Best will become Yonkers first African-American Female City Court Judges.

Dan Romano, a lifelong Yonkers resident who has practiced law in the county and city of Yonkers for over 30 years rounds off the top three with 19% of the vote (2,449).

With tens of thousands of mail-in paper ballots yet to be counted and a week for additional ballots to arrive, the results are not expected to be finalized for several weeks.

The Westchester Board of Elections informs that election results are the unofficial tally of election results prepared in accordance with Section 9-126 of the New York State Election Law. Due to multiple transcriptions of voting machine numbers involved in preparing the unofficial tally, all results are subject to error. Furthermore, in accordance with Section 8-142 of the New York State Election Law, some of the absentee votes may not be available for inclusion in the unofficial tally.

On their website, the BOE states, that on election night, one or more election districts may not report their results. In addition, some reports may include errors that cannot be resolved election night. Official election results will be compiled and made available by the Westchester County Board of Elections in accordance with Section 9-214 of the New York State Election Law no later than twenty-five (25) days after the election.

Stay tuned to Black Westchester Magazine as we cover these two African-American female Yonkers City Court Judge candidates who are one step closer to making history, awaiting the final results that could be two weeks away.