Joe Biden beats Donald Trump on Long Island, final tallies show
President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. on Dec. 1. Credit: AP/Andrew Harnik
ALBANY – Republican President Donald Trump beat Democrat Joe Biden in Suffolk County by just 232 votes, while Biden won in Nassau by nearly 70,000 votes, according to final returns.
Trump, who lost the election to Biden, got 381,253 votes, or 49.4% of the vote, in Suffolk compared with 381,021 votes for Biden, or 49.37% of the vote.
The results were released Thursday after absentee ballots were counted.
In Nassau, final tallies showed Biden with 396,504 votes, or 54.11% of the total, compared with 326,716, or 44.59%, for Trump.
In the 2016 election, Trump won Suffolk County by 49,849 votes, while Democrat Hillary Clinton won in Nassau by 30,858 votes, according to the state Board of Elections.
"Once again moderate ‘swing’ suburbanites have decided who gets the keys to the White House as they have for more than a generation," said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies.
"And Long Island is reflective of what happened in suburbs around the country -- a significant shift away from Trump compared to 2016 … It was about rejecting Trump."
On election night, Trump in Suffolk had 55.27% of the vote, compared with 42.99% for Biden.
In Nassau County on Nov. 3, Trump led Biden by 49.58% to 48.45%.
Democrats, however, mailed in absentee ballots at a rate of about 2:1 compared with Republicans.
Statewide, Biden had 5.23 million votes compared to Trump's 3.24 million, according to final totals certified Thursday.
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
