502 Absentee Ballots Await 18th District Tally
Election board will count votes next week in Spencer-Black race.
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The Suffolk County Board of Elections has 502 absentee ballots that it will review and tally next week to determine the winner in the 18th Legislative District.
After polls closed Tuesday night, Elizabeth Black trailed William Spencer by 179 votes in the race to succeed Majority Leader Jon Cooper, who is term limited.
Absentee ballots had to be postmarked by Nov. 7, the day before the election.
Black wasn't available for comment, but Spencer said Tuesday night, "I'm not claiming victory. I’m very optimistic but not claiming until the absentees come in. It’s close."
The Suffolk County Board of Elections reported that Spencer had 7,885 votes to 7,706 after balloting ended Tuesday, giving him 50.56 percent of the vote to Black's 49.41 percent.
Spencer, 44, is chief of otolaryngology at Huntington Hospital; Black, 58, is a retired teacher who serves as a trustee of the Huntington Board of Education.
Mary Silberstein
11:11 pm on Wednesday, November 9, 2011
I keep my fingers crossed and hopes that Doc Spencer is successful!
Robert Desmond
11:44 pm on Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Ms. Silberstein,
I took not that you posted on Northport Patch a few months ago that it was too bad that a shopping center had been approved for development. Your exact comment was "too bad we will look like Queens soon".
http://northport.patch.com/articles/25a-shopping-center-approved
While I agree with your sentiment I must say that your logic of supporting Dr. Spencer a.k.a. Dr. Density while opposed to Queens like urban blight simply doesn't make sense. Is is that you do not believe that this individual wouldn't love to put some high rise HUD housing on a postage stamp lot in down town Northport? To him that would be ecstasy so I would caution that you watch what you wish for because you just might get it.
I wouldn't worry though, those 500 votes are probably being "sorted" to favor Spencer in lieu of a genuine leader like Ms. Black.
Thom
10:59 am on Thursday, November 10, 2011
If my math is correct, in order for Mrs. Black to be victorious, she would have to have the votes of 341 of those 502 absentee ballots with Spencer getting only 161 in order to overcome her 179 vote deficit. As someone who has observed her on the School Board these past few years, I hope that is not the case.
Morgan
11:17 pm on Thursday, November 10, 2011
I find it ironic that this race will come down to absentee ballots....considering that Dr Spencer never filled one out for all the Harborfields school district elections he failed to vote for, year after year..he might have considered doing an absentee if he was just soooo busy he couldn't manage it. That's right - too busy to vote, but he wants to me MY vote in the legislator? No thanks.