No matter what the turnout, at least 2,000 votes will not be included in the election returns tonight.
That's because both Republicans and Democrats last week got a court order to keep the absentee ballots at the Board of Elections headquarters in Mineola rather than have them sent out to the polling places. They will counted later on, when county elections officials do a recanvass of all ballots following the special election.
Rick Brand
Elections officials say that 3,333 absentee ballots were mailed out, and as of late this afternoon, 2,079 votes had been returned to the board. The ballots had to be postmarked by Election eve, but can be delivered to the board until Feb. 13.
Among the applicants, 1,435 were Democrats, 1,376 were Republicans and 429 were unaffiliated with any party.
And of the ballots returned so far, 928 come from Democrats, 858 from Republicans and 239 are not affiliated with either party.