Elections board to recount all Nassau votes

Though only a few Nassau County races were declared too close to call Tuesday night, the county Board of Elections announced Wednesday that it will conduct a countywide recount of every ballot cast on Election Day.

Republican elections commissioner John DeGrace and Democratic elections commissioner William Biamonte said in a joint statement that they plan to recanvass all votes cast in county races. They added that they hope to complete the process by Nov. 27, the county's deadline to certify results and submit them to the New York State Board of Elections.

"The Board process will be ongoing as machine votes are verified, absentee ballots are opened and counted, and affidavit ballots are researched and validated," read the letter.

Another source at the Board of Elections, an individual who would only speak to the Herald on the condition of anonymity, said earlier on Wednesday that the decision to recount votes was made as a result of the tight race between County Executive Tom Suozzi and his challenger, Ed Mangano.

"Because of that, we felt it best to recount all the races," the source said.

Suozzi said he is confident that he will come out on top once the results are finalized. He posted the following message on Twitter on Wednesday: "We're up 237 votes. Absentees and other ballots still need to be counted. Plus machine recount. Hang in there, this will take some time."

But Mangano told the Herald that he expects to emerge victorious. "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."

According to the Board of Elections' Web site, Suozzi was leading with 118,111
votes to Mangano's 117,874.

Other close races include the heated battle for the 5th L.D. seat between incumbent Democrat Joe Scannell and Republican Chris Browne, whom are separated by fewer than 400 votes. Scannell has declared victory but Browne has not conceded, choosing instead to wait for the results of the recount.

Also, in unofficial results, incumbent Democrat Dave Mejias appears to have lost his 14th L.D. seat. But with only 28 votes separating him and challenger Joseph Belesi, a recount could prove otherwise.

Matt Hampton contributed to this story.