By June Mercer | October 25, 2026
Early voting opened Saturday, October 24, and voters in Dutchess and Putnam counties are already casting ballots. The top of the ballot has drawn most of the attention, but underneath the marquee races sits a full county layer: in Dutchess, a sheriff running alone on the ballot and all 25 seats of the County Legislature; next door in Putnam, the most genuinely contested county race in the region, a three-way fight for County Executive, and a coroner election contested for the first time in 26 years.
Dutchess County Sheriff
Kirk A. Imperati (R/C) is the only candidate on the certified Dutchess County ballot for sheriff. He is seeking a second elected term unopposed.
Imperati is a lifelong Dutchess County resident and Marist College graduate who spent roughly three decades inside the Sheriff’s Office, moving through road patrol, the D.A.R.E. and crime prevention unit, the school resource officer program, and the training division. When Sheriff Adrian “Butch” Anderson died in office on September 29, 2021, Imperati became acting sheriff. He was elected to the office in November 2022.
His is the only name on the ballot for the office.
Dutchess County Legislature: all 25 seats
All 25 Dutchess County Legislature districts are on the November 3 ballot, including seats elected just last year in 2025. A December 2023 state law (S3505B) shifted county legislative elections to even-numbered years. Because the seats were elected under the old odd-year schedule, they come back up again in 2026. These are regular elections, not special elections. The October 19 explainer has the full account of how the law works.
Governor Hochul signed S3505B in December 2023 to align county and town legislative elections with state and federal cycles, moving them to even-numbered years. The same law does not move judges, the sheriff, the district attorney, or the county clerk, whose election cycles are set separately.
For voters, the 17/8 split has a practical meaning. In the 8 unopposed districts, a single name appears on the ballot; no choice is required. In the other 17 districts, voters choose between two candidates on November 3. Those are the seats this election decides.
Of the 25 districts, 17 are contested and 8 have a single candidate on the ballot:
Unopposed (8 districts): District 4: Brendan Lawler (D/WF), Hyde Park and Town of Poughkeepsie; District 6: Tonya Speed (D), Town of Poughkeepsie; District 8: Brendli (D/WF), City and Town of Poughkeepsie; District 11: Brennan Kearney (D/WF), Clinton, Pleasant Valley and Rhinebeck; District 16: Yvette Valdés Smith (D/WF), incumbent, Fishkill and Beacon including Beacon Ward 4; District 18: Molly Rhodes (D/WF), incumbent, Beacon and Fishkill including Beacon Wards 1-3; District 19: Chris Drago (D/WF), Stanford, Pine Plains, Milan, Red Hook, North East and Millerton; District 20: Kristofer Munn (D/WF), Red Hook, Tivoli and Rhinebeck.
Valdés Smith (District 16) was also the 2024 Democratic nominee against State Sen. Rob Rolison, losing 49.3 to 50.7.
The Poughkeepsie Journal and the Highlands Current have additional coverage of the legislative races.
Full 25-district table
District 1, Town of Poughkeepsie: Robert V. Gorman (R/C) vs. Trevor Redl (D/WF)
District 2, LaGrange, Pleasant Valley, Town of Poughkeepsie: Emma Arnoff (D/WF) vs. Anne Burger (R/C)
District 3, LaGrange: Michael Polasek (R/C) vs. David Siegel (D/WF)
District 4, Hyde Park, Town of Poughkeepsie: Brendan Lawler (D/WF), unopposed
District 5, Town of Poughkeepsie: Tony D’Aquanni (R/C) vs. Anna Shah (D/WF)
District 6, Town of Poughkeepsie: Tonya Speed (D), unopposed
District 7, Hyde Park, Pleasant Valley: Lew Darrow (R/C) vs. Trish Prunty (D/WF)
District 8, City + Town of Poughkeepsie: Brendli (D/WF), unopposed
District 9, City of Poughkeepsie: Barrington R. Atkins (D/WF) vs. Aaron P. Scott (R/C)
District 10, City of Poughkeepsie: Shanta A. Persad Saeteros (R) vs. Nakia N. Simmons (D/WF)
District 11, Clinton, Pleasant Valley, Rhinebeck: Brennan Kearney (D/WF), unopposed
District 12, East Fishkill: Anthony Giaccone (D) vs. John Metzger (R/C)
District 13, East Fishkill, Wappinger: Kevin M. Giles (R) vs. Keith Odums (D/WF)
District 14, Town of Poughkeepsie, Wappinger: Lynne Miele-Versaci (R/C) vs. Alix Winsby (D/WF)
District 15, Wappinger: Robert S. Faust (R/C) vs. Kyle Fendrich (D/WF)
District 16, Fishkill + Beacon (incl. Beacon Ward 4): Yvette Valdés Smith (D/WF), incumbent, unopposed
District 17, Town + Village of Fishkill: Doug A.A. McHoul (R/C) vs. Mike Schade (D/WF)
District 18, Beacon + Fishkill (incl. Beacon Wards 1-3): Molly Rhodes (D/WF), incumbent, unopposed
District 19, Stanford, Pine Plains, Milan, Red Hook, North East, Millerton: Chris Drago (D/WF), unopposed
District 20, Red Hook, Tivoli, Rhinebeck: Kristofer Munn (D/WF), unopposed
District 21, East Fishkill: Stephen M. Caswell (R/C) vs. Francine M. Caracappa (D/WF)
District 22, Beekman, Union Vale: Joseph Tresca (R) vs. Heidi Tucci (D/WF)
District 23, Pawling, Beekman, East Fishkill: Marty Mygan (D/WF) vs. Chris Rolison (R/C)
District 24, Dover, Pawling: Andrew J. House (R/C) vs. August Uribe (D/WF)
District 25, Amenia, Washington, Pleasant Valley, Millbrook: Eric Alexander (D/WF) vs. Stefanie W. Hubert (R/C)
What is not on the Dutchess ballot
Voters looking for a few familiar offices will not find them this cycle. The Dutchess County Clerk, County Comptroller, District Attorney, County Court judge, and Family Court judge are not on the 2026 ballot. The County Comptroller and a County Court seat were decided in the 2025 election, which is part of why they do not appear this year. This year’s county-level contests in Dutchess are the sheriff and the 25 legislature districts, nothing more.
The Dutchess ballot also carries a full slate of town races: supervisors, town clerks, town justices and candidates for unexpired terms, plus a City of Poughkeepsie library trustee contest. The full town-by-town list is in the Poughkeepsie Journal’s rundown of the county ballot.
Putnam County Executive: a three-way race
The Putnam County Executive contest is the most genuinely unsettled county race in the region this fall, and the reason starts with a break from recent custom.
The Conservative Party did not endorse the Republican incumbent this year. Kevin Byrne (R/LP) holds the Republican and Libertarian lines. Tatiana Brahimi holds the Conservative line. That split is the structural fact underlying everything else in this race.
Kevin Byrne (R/LP), 41, is the incumbent county executive. A former three-term state assemblyman, Byrne ran unopposed for the office in 2022. No Democrat contested the open seat when MaryEllen Odell was term-limited out. He is seeking a second four-year term.
Brett Yarris (D/WF), 36, is the founder and CEO of a Westchester County-based company that provides services for people with special needs. His background is in special education and behavior science; he previously co-founded the sports media company Pro Football Network. He has lived in Putnam Valley since 2009 and received endorsements from every town Democratic committee in the county. On the Putnam County Board of Elections candidate list, Yarris appears on the Democratic line and on a Working Families/For the People line. Local Republican observers, as reported, have called him the strongest Democrat to run for the Putnam County Executive office in a county where every county executive since the office was created in 1979 has been a Republican.
Tatiana Brahimi (C), of Kent, is a registered Conservative who also uses the name Tatiana Ibrahim. She became widely known in 2021 after a Carmel school board speech denouncing diversity policies drew appearances on Fox & Friends and Newsmax. She was not the Conservative Party’s original choice for this race. The party initially nominated its chairman, former county attorney William Spain Jr., and then unanimously switched to Brahimi in August after Spain was selected for a state judicial run in Brooklyn.
The candidates’ own terms, attributed throughout: Brahimi campaigns on lower taxes, less government, law and order, and support for ICE. She has publicly rejected arguments that her candidacy splits the vote. Byrne has called her grossly unqualified and has alleged (this is his campaign’s claim, reported as such) that there is a Democratic-Conservative arrangement in which the county attorney, who is the Conservative chairman’s brother, would be retained in a future Democratic administration. Republican stakeholders quoted in
local coverage have expressed concern that Brahimi’s presence on the ballot draws votes from Byrne and creates an opening for Yarris. The Conservative Party’s break with Byrne and the three-way race it created have drawn coverage across Putnam’s local outlets, including Lohud and Halston Media’s Mahopac News.
Putnam County Clerk and Coroner
County Clerk: Michael C. Bartolotti (R/C/LP), the incumbent, is unopposed. Bartolotti also holds the Putnam County Conservative Party’s endorsement for re-election.
County Coroner is where the ballot produces its genuine surprise. Putnam elects three coroners to four-year terms, but only two of those seats are on this year’s ballot. The third coroner, Wendy Erickson, was re-elected in 2024 and her seat is not up until 2028. That is why voters choose up to two candidates from a field of three, not all three at once. The office had not seen a contested race in 26 years. The last was in 2000. In 2014, 2018 and 2022, incumbents Dr. Michael J. Nesheiwat (of Carmel) and John F. Bourges (of Mahopac) ran without opposition.
This year, for the first time since 2000, there is a challenge. Voters choose up to two candidates from a field of three:
Dr. Michael J. Nesheiwat (R; C/LP), Carmel, incumbent
John F. Bourges (R; C/LP), Mahopac, incumbent
Dr. Michael L. Strauss (D; The Putnam Party), Putnam Valley, challenger
Coroners in Putnam investigate suspicious and violent deaths. No medical degree is legally required for the office, though all three candidates are physicians. The office investigated 197 deaths in 2025, 45 of which required autopsies. Each coroner earns $48,173 a year.
Putnam County Legislature (three districts also on the ballot):
District 2: Maia N. Gilleo (D/WF/Putnam Party) vs. Christian J. Russo (R/C/LP)
District 3: Kathy Kahng (D/Putnam Party) vs. Joseph Cunningham (R/C)
District 8: Gwendolyn H. Burke (D/Putnam Party) vs. Tanner McCracken (R/C)
Finding your races: when to vote
Early voting runs through Sunday, November 1, 2026. Dutchess early-voting sites are open 9 AM to 5 PM on most days; the exceptions are Monday, October 26 and Wednesday, October 28, when hours run from noon to 8 PM. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3; polls are open from 6 AM to 9 PM. If you are voting by mail, your ballot must be postmarked by November 3 and received by November 10 to count. For Dutchess early-voting site locations, see the October 22 early-voting guide. Putnam voters can find their sites and hours at the Putnam County Board of Elections.
Check the table above against your address to find your Dutchess Legislature district. Dutchess voters can also confirm their district and polling place with the Dutchess County Board of Elections. For Putnam races, look up your contests at the county board of elections. If you are voting early this week, you are casting a ballot in at least some of these races right now.
Candidate information verified against the Dutchess County BOE certified candidate notice, the Putnam County BOE candidate list, the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Highlands Current, and Lohud, verified October 17, 2026.
