Challenges begin in counting of absentee ballots for Oyster Bay supervisor

A number of Oyster Bay absentee ballots were challenged on the first day of counting to determine if the Democratic challenger's thin lead prevails or the GOP incumbent has won a 10th term as town supervisor.

John Ryan, counsel for the Republican Nassau County election commissioner, said the challenges, for example, included questions about voters' signatures and registrations.

Ryan said he hoped the count -- which began at 2 p.m. on Thursday -- would finish "within the next week."

Election officials, who must scrutinize 1,780 absentee ballots and about 200 affidavit ballots, might finish as soon as Wednesday, said John Mangelli, the Democratic candidate.

John Venditto, the Republican incumbent, was not immediately available for comment.

Nassau election officials set up two tables in Mineola, where about 120 ballots might be counted per hour, Mangelli said. "But I told them not to contact me until it's over; even on election night, I didn't want to see the polls, I didn't want to see what was going up and what was going down," he said.

On Tuesday, election officials said Mangelli's 68-vote lead might shrink to 60 votes after the counting of 51 emergency ballots, used when machines malfunction. Affidavit ballots are cast when residents are not on the list of the polling place where they vote.

The GOP and Democratic Board of Elections commissioners were hoping to get a running tally of the count late last night, according to a source familiar with the process.

The board works in a bipartisan fashion to methodically determine whether the votes are valid, checking, for example, whether they were received by the Nov. 10 deadline.

Venditto on Tuesday said the outcome might not be known for weeks, and he reached out to his opponent to discuss a possible transition.