MINEOLA, N.Y. (WCBS 880) -- Nassau County’s Board of Elections won’t begin counting absentee and affidavit ballots until next week, keeping its tight executive race in the balance for a little longer.
The counting of nearly 23,000 absentee and 1,200 affidavit ballots will happen Monday at a Board of Elections warehouse in Mineola, almost two weeks after Election Day.
As it stands, Republican Bruce Blakeman leads incumbent County Executive Laura Curran by over 11,800 votes. Blakeman has declared victory, while Curran hasn't conceded.
Why the wait? Democratic Elections Commissioner James Scheuerman said legally, they have to wait to count affidavit ballots until Nov. 15.
“So there’s a process where every county has to research those affidavits and send them to the state Board of Elections. And our deadline for that is the [Nov. 12] for the state board to then turn around and send us a list who might’ve filled an affidavit out and voted somewhere else,” said Scheuerman. “We have to go in and call those out. So we have to wait until the 15th … to make sure everything is reconciled.”
Absentee ballots are checked close to make sure a person didn’t turn in a ballot by mail and also vote in-person.
“So there’s a process that takes a couple of days for our poll pads from the poll sites to come back to the Board of Elections. Once that data syncs up, we have everybody who voted on Election Day, we also have the early voters. And then there’s a period of time where it takes us to go through those 23,000 absentees, and pull out anybody who might’ve voted at a poll site.”
State law allows those who have sent in absentees to go vote in-person if they want. Scheuerman said they do have “many” people who do that.
Candidates will be allowed to watch the counting process next week, if they’re so inclined to.
Tuesday marks the final day county boards of election will take in absentee ballots, which have to be postmarked by Nov. 2 at 9 p.m.
Unless Curran makes a comeback with the absentee votes, Republicans will have taken back Nassau and Suffolk district attorney spots, and Nassau comptroller from Democrats.