Cooperstown News Bureau

MIDDLEFIELD CENTER - Robert "Bud" Tabor's name will not be on the ballot next week, although he's running for election to the Middlefield Town Board.

Tabor is a councilman, appointed in August to fill a vacancy that arose when Francis Kubis died.

Tabor, 32, a Republican, said he likes the job and wants to keep it. His candidacy to complete the last three years of Kubis' term was approved by a GOP caucus late this summer, but the results of that caucus were not reported on time to the Otsego County Board of Elections, according to Deputy Elections Commissioner Sheila Ross.

Results must be reported by Sept. 17 so ballots can be organized and printed for the election.

Middlefield town Supervisor David Bliss, a Republican, said he happened to be reading a list of candidates in the newspaper recently and noticed Tabor's name was missing.

"I talked to the people at the Board of Elections and they said they'd never gotten any notice about the caucus," he said.

Bliss contacted Tabor with the bad news that he now has to try to win the election as a write-in candidate, opposed by Democrat Jeffrey Osterhoudt, 55, who is on the ballot.

"I think a lot of people know I'm running, but we're printing up some material, trying to let people how to write in my name," he said.

Tabor said his father, Lloyd, was a town councilman, and he is familiar with how it operates.

"When I took this job in August, I was hoping it would last more than a few months," he said Tuesday, one week before the election.

Osterhoudt, who works for the county Highway Department, said he would like to do his part for Middlefield.

"I'm interested in how the town is run. I have some free time, and I'd like serve on the town council," he said. "I've gotten to an age when I thought I should get involved."

Another incumbent left off the ballot is Republican Carolyn Atkyns, Plainfield's town clerk.

"We didn't have our caucus in time," Atkyns said. "By the time we were ready to have it, there weren't enough days left to get the notice into the paper to make it a legal meeting."

Atkyns was appointed town clerk this year after two others had resigned from the post. She said she wants to keep the job and now is running as a write-in candidate.

Atkyns, 34, said she worries that when people don't see her name on the ballot, they will think she doesn't want to keep the job.

"I am running, and I want to be the town clerk," she said.

No one else will be on the ballot for this post and Atkyns said she knows of no one else seeking the job.

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Tom Grace can be reached at grace@ascent.net or (607) 547-2431.