Glen Cove mayor’s race outstanding vote count to start Friday

Nassau County elections officials on Friday are to begin counting absentee and affidavit ballots for the Glen Cove mayoral race, in which incumbent Independence Party candidate Reginald Spinello holds a 21-vote lead over Democratic challenger Timothy Tenke.

In the election night count, Spinello had 2,651 votes, and Tenke had 2,630.

Of the 310 outstanding ballots, 144 are from registered Democrats, and 122 are from voters registered with the Republican, Independence, Conservative and Reform parties — all party lines that Spinello ran on, said David J. Gugerty, the Democratic elections board commissioner.

Forty-four outstanding ballots are from residents not registered with any party.

The 22 affidavit ballots are for voters whose names were not on lists at polling places and whose eligibility was verified afterward by elections officials.

The tally likely will be complete by Friday afternoon, Gugerty said. Attorneys for each campaign will observe the count, he said.

Tenke, a city councilman, said he is “fairly confident this is going to come out in my favor.”

“The number of Democratic returned absentee ballots is a good sign,” he said.

Spinello said that, in a city in which Democrats enjoy a nearly 50 percent registration advantage over Republicans, he’s always won some Democratic votes.

“I’m confident that we’ll prevail,” Spinello said. “I have a 21-vote advantage going in. Usually when you do these things, they sway maybe five, 10 votes, that’s about it.”

Spinello in 2015 beat Councilman Anthony Gallo, a Republican running on the independent Glen Cove United party line, 3,024 to 2,346, or 56 to 43 percent. But Spinello ran on the Democratic line in 2015, as well as the GOP, Independence, Conservative and Reform lines.

In 2013, Spinello beat then-incumbent Democrat Ralph Suozzi by 74 votes.

A City Council race also could be affected by the elections-board count.

Democrat Marsha Silverman is leading by 15 votes for the last of six City Council spots over Republican Matthew Connolly.

Republicans, including three incumbents, were the five top vote-getters in the 14-candidate race for the six council positions.