Suozzi, Mangano wait it out

With several close races on Election Day including the one for county executive, the Nassau County Board of Elections began its review of votes on Monday.

On Election Night, County Executive Tom Suozzi was locked in a battle with his Republican challenger, Ed Mangano. Unofficial results had Suozzi in the lead — barely. But as of Tuesday night one week later, with 900 machines recounted and 500 more to go, Mangano held a 147-vote lead.

Republican Election Commissioner John DeGrace said machine tallies should be completed by Thursday. Then the Board of Elections will move on to more than 7,000 absentee ballots and 1,000 affidavit votes, DeGrace explained, saying that once the count of paper ballots begins, teams from both parties will be present. 

“The bottom line is it’s going to come down to the paper, and that’s going to be next week,” DeGrace said. 

Of the absentee ballots, about 3,300 are from registered Republicans, 2,700 from registered Democrats and the rest from other parties or those without party affiliations.

DeGrace said that the Board of Elections has to certify results within 25 days, but an extension will likely be necessary. “It’s going to take a while,” he said late last week of determining a winner in the county executive race. He did say he expects it to be decided before January, when the new term starts. 

Suozzi, at a press conference on Nov. 4, when he still held a slim 237-vote lead, said he wanted to remain positive but did not want to predict victory. For his part, Mangano sounded confident. “We’re definitely going to see a shift in our favor when those machines are reconciled,” he said. “The bottom line is that it is a neck-and-neck race, and I’m very confident that those absentee ballots, when they’re counted, are going to give us a margin of victory.”