Martins ahead after fourth day of Nassau recount

The counting of paper ballots in Nassau County's tight state Senate race finished its fourth day Monday with Republican challenger Jack Martins holding on to a slim lead over Democratic incumbent Craig Johnson.

Supporters of Martins, the mayor of Mineola, said that most of the heavily Democratic areas of the Seventh Senate District had been counted, and that they expected their candidate to gradually build a bigger lead, which stood at 211 when counting halted for the day. Martins had 41,629 to Johnson's 41,418.

But Johnson supporters said the outcome would not be known until all 4,200 paper ballots in the district had been counted. Most of Monday was spent counting the 16th Assembly District, which is also the core of Johnson's Senate District.

Meanwhile, the Suffolk County Board of Elections will begin counting about 13,000 absentee ballots and affidavit Tuesday in the congressional race between Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and Republican Randy Altschuler. Counting the ballots should take until at least Friday, elections officials said. The BOE will give an updated count of absentee ballots at the end of each day, officials said.

Monday, Suffolk workers also continued a state-mandated audit of 43 voting machines used in the race. The auditors had inspected 17 machines by midday Monday and had not found an error, officials said. Nassau will begin its audit Wednesday.

In Nassau, Martins was leading by 165 votes in early afternoon when a supporter, clipboard in hand, said workers had gotten past Johnson's strongest areas and would now begin opening absentee ballots in areas of the 16th district such as Manhasset (which Martins carried on the machine vote), Martins' hometown of Mineola and nearby New Hyde Park. When the 16th district is finished, they will move on to Republican-held 17th and 21st Assembly Districts.

However, Johnson's election lawyer, Steven Schlesinger, warned against making any predictions. "We think we still can win," he said. "It's definitely an uphill battle, but like Yogi Berra said, 'It ain't over 'till it's over.' "

The Johnson-Martins race is one of three races - there are also ones in Westchester and Buffalo - that will decide which party will control the state Senate for the next two years, and state Democrats hired an attorney Monday to coordinate their vote counting efforts in the three jurisdictions.

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee said it was hiring Ken Gross, who heads the political law practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

With Patrick Whittle