Three Suffolk races come down to absentees

Suffolk Republican chairman John Jay LaValle held out hope Wednesday that the GOP could reverse the outcome of one or more of three close Suffolk legislative races because the county Board of Elections has yet to count nearly 1,700 absentee ballots in those contests.

LaValle refused to concede the races for the 6th, 7th or 18th Legislative Districts even though Democratic contenders now hold narrow leads ranging from 103 votes to 357 votes.

"The long and short of it is that I'm very hopeful," said LaValle, noting there are from 499 to 605 absentee ballots that have yet to be counted in each race. "Obviously three races appear to be very close and with the new machines . . . I don't have any confidence in them."

LaValle noted there were problems with the new computerized machines last year, which led to wide swings in recounts, and technical problems arose in the September primaries.

Elections officials said problems occurred last year because workers are using a new system for the first time and called in results by phone. Since then, new procedures have been adopted to send data electronically. Officials added that a software problem that occurred during the primary was corrected.

Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic chairman, expressed confidence Democrats and their minor-party allies would maintain their current 12-6 majority because Republicans would have to win an overwhelming majority of absentees to reverse the outcome, an unlikely scenario in contests that were neck and neck.

"I feel very confident about [Legis. Sarah] Anker and [Dr. William] Spencer, and if I had to guess, I think that Rob Calarco is going to win by about 80," Schaffer said.

During the campaign, Republicans claimed they had a good chance of ousting the Democratic majority or at least cutting into its numbers. "I'm a little surprised [with the outcome], especially with the national mood out there," said LaValle, but he blamed the Democrats' relentless mail, radio and TV campaign that outspent the GOP 5-to-1. "How do you overcomes a barrage of mailing that come to people's door twice a week for three months straight?"

The GOP leader also criticized Republican lawmakers who earlier this week supported a property tax increase in the county budget after they ran on a platform to cut spending and lower taxes. "When you have Republicans stand with Democrats [to raise taxes] it confuses your base," he said.

Suffolk elections officials said they will begin an audit of 3 percent of the polling machines on Monday, and start canvassing the absentee ballots Wednesday. They said the canvassing of absentee ballots cannot begin until they check to make sure those who filed absentee ballots did not also show up to vote on Election Day.