The 9th Senate District: how your town voted

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Though the official results are not in yet, Todd Kaminsky seems to be poised to fill the vacant seat left by Dean Skelos.

With 68,000 votes cast, Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) beat his opponent Chris McGrath by a narrow margin — 33,978 to 33,198, based on unofficial results from the Nassau County Board of Elections. And with hundreds of absentee ballots still to count, those numbers are likely to change.

Kaminsky scored big wins in his home of Long Beach, as well as neighboring Lido Beach. He also did very well in Valley Stream.

But McGrath won more communities overall. He did well in Oceanside, Island Park and Rockville Centre, and trounced Kaminsky in the Five Towns (especially Cedarhurst and Lawrence).

Official results from the Board of Education are expected in a few weeks, after all of the paper ballots and absentee ballots are counted. According to the Nassau County Board of Elections, there were more than 2,700 absentee ballots yet to be counted — 1,318 Democrats, 1,169 Republicans, 26 Conservative and 206 unaffiliated. Kaminsky is expected to hold his win, although the absentee ballots could sway that, although it is unlikely.

“When we started this campaign, I promised you I’d fight as hard as I could and together we’d send a message to Albany,” Kaminsky said during his victory speech. “I told you if we stand together, we’ll say that we won’t stand for putting special interests before Long Island’s interests, that we wouldn’t stand for a system that cuts deals and cuts you out, and in this race, the light defeated the darkness. We sent a message that the special interests and all the smoke-filled backrooms — we’re not going to take it anymore, that Long Islanders are going to win for a change, and tonight we won because of all of you.”