Patrick Swanson, left, and Jason Schmidt.

Chautauqua County will soon have a new district attorney.

According to unofficial results by the county Board of Elections, Jason Schmidt pulled in more than 63% of the countywide vote over incumbent District Attorney Patrick Swanson, who received about 36%. Even with outstanding absentee ballots to be counted next week, Schmidt received more than enough votes — 29,925 to Swanson’s 17,122 as of press time — to clinch the race and assume office next year.

Swanson called Schmidt after 10 p.m. to concede and wish him well.

“It’s very disappointing,” Swanson told The Post-Journal shortly before the last of the county’s 60 districts were reported. “We dealt with some very difficult cases, and unfortunately the funding from the legislature wasn’t there and we were dealing with a judge who was learning his way. I hope the people know we did the best we thought we could.”

In 2016, Swanson — then the interim district attorney following the departure of David Foley — defeated Schmidt by securing about 56% of the vote countywide. The re-match between the two attorneys had been one of the more hotly contested races in the county this year.

In a series of debates leading up to the election, Schmidt routinely criticized Swanson — specifically for his conviction rate and his handling of a series of high-profile cases.

“Chautauqua County is at the very lowest end. It’s not above the average,” Schmidt said.

Swanson had insisted that Schmidt’s statistics were inaccurate.

“If you look at the last four years in New York state, our convictions on felonies is 21% and the state average is 20(%),” he said. “We are higher than the state average. We’re doing better than everyone else.”

Schmidt previously worked for the District Attorney’s Office before becoming a criminal defense attorney.

Swanson — who had noted on more than one occasion that the county has the highest caseload in the state, about 287 cases per prosecutor — had repeatedly defended his record while leading the office.

“You can compare our statistics in our office to any county in the state and what you’re going to see is that we’re doing as good or better than everybody in the state’s 62 counties,” he said.