WAMPSVILLE — The next Madison County Judge is expected to be Cazenovia resident Rhonda Youngs after a write-in campaign that received support from both sides of the aisle.

According to unofficial results in Madison County, Bradley Moses received 5,643 votes for Madison County Judge — but there were 16,268 write-in ballots for Youngs, who started a write-in campaign in August after Moses reportedly suffered a drug overdose in his home.

Moses was asked to remove his name from the ballot by the Madison County Republican and Conservative committees, but refused, officials said.

With three times as many write-ins, it looks like a win for the Cazenovia native. Though, Youngs urges patience.

"We must be patient and await the Board of Elections review and tally of individual write-in votes, but we are optimistic about the outcome," Youngs posted on her Facebook page. “Regardless of the results, thank you to the thousands of Madison County voters who acted today in the interests of integrity in our courts. I am truly grateful for your support and encouragement and, if the results hold and I am elected as Madison County judge, you can be assured that I will serve with fairness and integrity.”

The Madison County Board of Elections has to go through and tally each and every write-in candidate to determine just how many votes actually are for Youngs. One of the more time-consuming parts of analyzing the write-ins is determining voter intent.

Republican Commissioner Mary Egger said if someone voted for Youngs, but misspelled their name, its up to the Board of Election to determine who the voter was trying to vote for.

Egger said the write-ins are being organized and catalogued and while she couldn't say when an official result would be released, she said they'd have a better idea of the election result by the end of the week.

With around 22,000 ballots that need to be accounted for — including absentee and affidavit — the Madison County Board of Elections has a lot of work ahead of them.