Bayside Assemblyman Declares Victory After Absentee Ballot Count

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — State Assembly Member Edward Braunstein has declared victory in his re-election bid, after the counting of thousands of absentee ballots pushed him into the lead over his Republican opponent.

Braunstein secured over three-quarters of the 15,000-plus absentee ballots cast in the race, erasing the narrow lead that John-Alexander Sakelos held over him following Election Day and ending up thousands of votes ahead, according to unofficial tallies from Braunstein's campaign.

"Now that the absentee ballots have been counted, I am proud to report that I have won re-election and will continue to represent the people of the 26th Assembly District," Braunstein said in a statement. "I want to thank the residents of Northeast Queens for supporting our positive campaign and giving me the opportunity to continue serving our community in Albany."

The New York City Board of Elections started its count last week of hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots mailed or dropped off by voters in the 2020 Election.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order allowing all registered voters to cast absentee ballots instead of having to go to the polls.

Although Sakelos led Braunstein by about 2,000 votes after Election Day, mail-in ballots have overwhelmingly skewed Democratic locally and nationally.

In the 26th Assembly District, Democrats cast nearly 10,000 absentee ballots, or two-thirds of the total number of absentee ballots, according to Board of Elections data. Republican voters accounted for just under 2,000, and about 3,300 had no party affiliation.

Braunstein now leads Sakelos by more than 5,000 votes, according to a campaign spokesperson, though the result remains unofficial until certified by the New York Board of Elections.

Sakelos had initially declared himself the winner of the election, saying he was "cautiously optimistic" that voters had chosen him and calling the results a "resounding win" for the district.

But Braunstein, who was first elected to the Assembly in 2010, expressed confidence that he would prevail once all the absentee votes had been counted.

The 26th Assembly District covers parts of Auburndale, Bay Terrace, Bayside, Bayside Hills, Broadway-Flushing, Douglaston, Floral Park, Glen Oaks, Little Neck, New Hyde Park, North Shore Towers, Oakland Gardens and Whitestone.