Heights votes correctly counted in final tally
Suffolk County voting results released immediately after the November 2 election indicated a narrow 24-vote victory for town justice candidate Mary-Faith Healey and showed that the Heights was the only district on Long Island to opt for sending a Rent is Too Damn High candidate and a Libertarian satirist to the U.S. Senate.
That couldn’t be right, said local poll watchers who recorded very different results on Election Night and local vote inspectors who had difficulty calling in totals from new optical scanner voting machines.
And it wasn’t right. The Islanders have been vindicated in the final tally, released by Suffolk County Board of Elections officials on December 10, weeks after the election.
With all ballots officially counted, Ms. Healey won by a 362-vote margin, 907 to 545. In ED 3, the final tally went to Ms. Healey, 212 to 134.
As reported on November 11, results for Election District 3 in the Heights gave Ms. Healey’s opponent, Republican justice candidate Tom Carr, over 90 percent of that district’s vote. For weeks the county’s unofficial results for the race, as posted on its website, showed Ms. Healey, the Democratic candidate, with 586 votes to Mr. Carr’s 562, not including absentee ballots.
Senate candidates Joseph Huff of the Rent is Too Damn High Party and comedian Randy Credico of the Libertarian Party each received only two votes in ED 3, not the 138 to 179 votes posted on election night. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer won solid majorities of Shelter Island voters, each by margins of well over 300 votes.
The official results also show that defeated Democratic Assemblyman Marc Alessi was the preferred candidate on Shelter Island and in Southold and Riverhead towns. Brookhaven voters put challenger Dan Losquadro, the Republican, over the top, by 917 votes in the final county tally.
Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop, who retained his 1st District seat after Republican Randy Altschuler conceded on December 8, won on the Island, 899 to 577, according to the final results.
He also won easily in East Hampton, Southampton and Brookhaven towns. Mr. Altschuler won more votes in Riverhead, Smithtown and Southold. He lost by 593 votes district-wide in the final count.
