Democratic chief Jay Jacobs: Wayne Wink has lost North Hempstead supervisor's race

Nassau County Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs said Friday that party candidate Wayne Wink Jr. has lost the race for North Hempstead Town supervisor to Republican candidate Jennifer DeSena.

But Wink on Friday did not concede the race, saying we would "wait it out" until completion of the count of absentee ballots.

DeSena leads Wink by 3,139 votes in unofficial returns.

As of Friday, 4,701 absentee ballots had been retuned to the county Board of Elections, including 3,074 from registered Democrats, 837 from Republicans and 676 from voters not registered with any political party.

Absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day will be accepted by the BOE until Tuesday.

Jacobs, also the state Democratic chairman, said Friday he was "disappointed that our supervisor candidate and one of our council candidates got swept up in the Red Wave that hit our county, state and country on Election Day."

But Wink, noting the number of absentee ballots, told Newsday: "We're going to wait and see and make sure every vote is counted."

Democrats control North Hempstead's seven-member board, and Jacobs said he expected the party to retain control.

Republicans went into Election Day with only one party member, Angelo Ferrara, on the town council.

According to a tally of absentee ballots released Friday by the county elections board, it appeared Republicans would pick up at least one council seat, in the 3rd District.

In the town clerk's race, Republican Ragini Srivastava was leading incumbent Democrat Viviana L. Russell.

The count of returned absentees is the same as in the supervisor's contest. Jacobs declined to discuss the race Friday.

Nassau Republican Committee chairman Joseph Cairo Jr. said in a statement: "The voters of North Hempstead spoke out loud and clear on Election Day. They are tired of repeated tax hikes in the Town, year after year. Newly elected Republican officials will be responsive and accountable to taxpayers."

DeSena, 52, is executive director of the nonprofit Manhasset Community Coalition Against Substance Abuse. She is a registered Democrat, but ran on the Republican and Conservative party lines.

Wink, 54, of Roslyn, has been town clerk since 2013. He served previously as a town council member and as a Nassau County legislator.

Supervisor Judi Bosworth, a Democrat, did not seek reelection.

In the 3rd Council District, it appeared Republican Dennis Walsh, a Mineola Village Board trustee, was likely to beat Democrat Christine Pusateri, a speech language pathologist from Williston Park.

Walsh leads Pusateri by 1,775 votes — 4,387 to Pusateri’s 2,612, according to the unofficial count.

As of Friday, Democrats had returned only 340 absentee ballots while Republicans had returned 166 and voters unaffiliated with a political party, 88.

In the 1st Council District, incumbent Democrat Robert Troiano had a 597-vote lead over Republican Kerri Delio. As of Friday, only 117 absentee ballots had been returned by Republicans, Democrats had sent in 316. The remainder were from unaffiliated voters and members of minor parties.

In the 5th District, Republican David Adhami had a 658-vote lead over Democrat Peter Fishkind. There were 641 uncounted absentee ballots from Democrats: 155 from Republicans, 132 from unaffiliated voters and the rest from other minor parties.

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.