Nassau County won’t start counting thousands of absentee votes until next week, delaying the final results of the scarce county executive race, in which Republican Bruce Blakeman leads Nassau County Democratic chairman Laura Curran with nearly 12,000 votes.
However, Suffolk County will begin counting its mailed votes Tuesday, which could mark some tight legislative races.
Blakeman led Curran with 11,834 votes out of 259,850 votes cast during the early voting and on election day, November 2nd.
Nassau County has decided to wait until Monday to count almost 20,000 postal votes, as officials will then be able to count more than 1,200 affidavits that could not be counted by law this week.
By last Friday, 19,895 postal ballots had been received in the district races for the district executive, the district auditor and the district attorney.
Republican Anne Donnelly won the prosecutor’s race and Republican Elaine Phillips was elected auditor.
Democratic voters sent 11,341 ballots, Republicans 5,575 and non-party voters 2,407, while the remainder were from voters enrolled in smaller political parties.
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The Suffolk County Electoral Committee had received 18,525 postal votes by Monday.
Including 10,343 from Democrats, 4,513 from Republicans, 3,276 from non-party voters, and the rest from voters from smaller parties.
Tuesday is the last day on which the district electoral committees accept postal ballot papers, which must be postmarked by the end of the polling station on November 2nd at 9 p.m.
It could take more than a day for the high-speed machines to count the ballots itself. After that, candidates and their attorneys can challenge opponents’ votes, vote after vote, in a process that has lasted days and even weeks in the past tight races. The district electoral authorities overseeing the challenges will include commissioners appointed by the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Candidates can also challenge the final count in court, which further delays the publication of the final results.
In addition to the county government race, mail-in votes could be decisive in races in the 16th and 18th legislative districts of Nassau Counties and the 5th and 16th counties of Suffolk.
In the 16th in Nassau, Republican Daniel Alter led the Democratic incumbent Arnold Drucker with 253 votes on election night. The electoral board received 998 absentee votes, of which 448 were from Democrats, 366 from Republicans and 138 from non-party voters.
In the 18th district of Nassau, the Republican Paolo Pironi had a lead of 245 votes The independent incumbent Joshua Alexander Lafazan, who was also supported by the Democratic Party, on election night.
Nassau Democratic leader Jay Jacobs said of Lafazan and Drucker, “I actually feel good about both of them.” Jacobs said Lafazan had a “very, very comfortable” head start and it would be “bumpier” for printers.
The county’s electoral committee received 1,261 absentee votes in the race – 834 from Democrats, 238 from Republicans, and 156 from non-party voters. A small number of smaller party members also voted by mail.
The BOE must also count more than 1,200 affidavit ballots that were set aside until they could be researched from the district records.
Often, voters cast sworn votes in elections because their names cannot be verified in electronic ballot books.
In the Suffolk County’s 5th District race, incumbent Democrat Kara Hahn had a 74-vote lead over Republican Salvatore SB Isabella on Nov. 2. At least 716 Democrats and at least 207 Republicans in that district cast postal votes on Friday.
At least another 211 voters who are not enrolled in a party also cast postal votes, while a small number of voters in smaller parties also cast letters.
In Suffolk County’s 16th Legislative District, Republican Manuel Estaban Sr. had a 546 vote lead over Democratic incumbent Susan Berland on election night. By Friday, the district received 808 postal votes. Of these, 490 were from Democrats and 190 from Republican voters, with voters enrolled in smaller parties and with a low number of votes. Another 113 voters who were not enrolled in the party also came in by postal vote.
The GOP was on the way to flipping at least four seats and expelling the chairman and the democratic majority leader, according to the election results on Wednesday around 12.30 p.m. The vice-chairwoman, another Democrat, fought a close race for her seat.
In the early vote and election day vote, Republicans achieved an overwhelming victory in the Suffolk County’s legislature by ousting top Democratic leaders and taking control of the 18-seat body.
Both parties agree that in Suffolk County, the legislative seat of the 5th district is likely to remain a Democrat while the 16th district could go to the Republicans, they said. If this happens, the Suffolk GOP would have control over the Legislature of County 12-6.
The officials said they believe they will know by the end of the week.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we will elect Manny Esteban as the new legislature in the 16th district,” said Suffolk Republican Committee Chairman Jesse Garcia. “I’m a little less hopeful in the 5th legislative district.”
Suffolk Democratic Committee chairman Rich Schaeffer said he will “definitely not” give the 5th ward to Republicans. “We believe that Kara Hahn will be victorious.” He said he was “a little less optimistic” about winning the 16th district seat.
Esteban said he has already started preparing for service in the 16th district of Suffolk County.
“I’m cautiously optimistic about the number of postal ballots,” he said on Monday.
In Suffolk County’s 5th Legislative District, Hahn said she was also cautiously optimistic that the postal vote would re-elect her to the legislative seat.
Michael Gormley has been with Newsday since 2013, dealing with state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
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