Supervisor Jim Dougherty deserves congratulations for his win in the supervisor race and the town Democratic Committee deserves credit for doing a great job reaching out to absentee voters this fall, banking on a majority of them to turn the tide if things did not go so well for the supervisor on Election Day.

They didn’t. He lost three of four districts. But Mr. Dougherty creamed his two opponents among absentee voters, whom one candidate was heard this week to quip constituted the Island’s “fifth district, the Upper West Side.” According to unofficial results, he won 142 absentee votes while Glenn Waddington garnered only 58 and Bob DeStefano took 57. Mr. Dougherty’s spread of 84 votes over Mr. Waddington was more than enough to overcome the supervisor’s 61-vote deficit against him on Election Day.

Some of his opponents thought he’d never pull that off. Sixty-one votes on Election Day, they said, could not be canceled out by the approximately 300 absentee returns uncounted in the three-way race. But local Democratic insiders seemed to know something that the other politicos didn’t. As Democratic Chair Heather Reylek said last week in an email to supporters, Mr. Dougherty was “very much still in the race” as the Board of Elections prepared to count the absentees. One seasoned observer privately predicted Mr. Dougherty would win because of the solid block of Democrats registered to vote on the Island, who were unlikely to wander from the party line to vote for an independent or Republican.

It’s true that Islanders have been known to hop around on their ballots — the case in point this year is Republican Peter Reich, who clearly drew some Democratic votes. But as the absentee count added up, the two candidates who trailed among the home-bound locals on Election Day — Democrats Dan Fokine and Ian Weslek — did very well, narrowing the gap between them and the top vote-getters. That’s the retiree, second-home owner, snowbird Democratic base at work. A lot of those voters followed the party line and they were not fazed by, or perhaps even aware of, Mr. Dougherty’s troubles as Town Board members (not just Mr. Waddington) challenged and criticized him this summer and fall. They aren’t people who follow every twist and turn of Town Board meetings and spats over the quality and completeness of Mr. Dougherty’s budget proposal.

That doesn’t make them any less a part of the Island’s life, heart and soul than people who live and work here. Shelter Island’s economy depends on second-home owners; few if any businesses here could survive without them. That’s not the only reason to count them in as part of the Island’s identity: they love the Island in their own way — otherwise they wouldn’t bother to vote here.

Some people may look at the results of the supervisor race and think it shows an Island divided against itself. That’s all wrong. Think again.