Counting Of Ballots To Decide Bayside's Council Race Now Underway

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Election officials began counting thousands of absentee ballots on Monday, which will determine the outcome of Bayside's City Council race.

The race to represent Bayside's District 19 remained too-close-to call on election night, when Republican Vickie Paladino was seen leading Democrat Tony Avella by 1,653 votes, according to the city's unofficial results.

Outlets like NY1 and the New York Times both show Paladino leading Avella with about 50 percent of the votes, though only 88 percent of ballots are accounted for, meaning that official results will likely come down to the district's 2,647 absentee ballots, which the BOE began tabulating on Nov. 15.

All told, election officials have to count over 91,000 ballots from New Yorkers across the five boroughs, which they plan to do seven days a week — barring Nov. 25th and 26th for Thanksgiving — until every ballot is counted.

More than, 24,800 of those ballots are from voters in Queens, including the 2,647 absentee ballots from District 19.

Of those ballots, 1,931 are from people voting on the Democratic line, 392 are from people voting on the Republican line, and 19 are from people voting on the Conservative party line; Paladino and Avella are also facing off against John-Alexander Sakelos, who lost the GOP primary nomination and ran on the Conservative party line, but is no longer a contender in the race, polls show.

An additional 47 ballots in District 19 are from people who voted on a different party line than those mentioned above, and 258 ballots came back blank.

Based on these totals, it is unlikely that Avella will make up his 1,653-vote gap with Paladino; even if the 1,931 people who voted on the Democratic line cast a vote in his favor, Paladino would still maintain a 114-point lead if all 392 Republican votes went to her.

Paladino, however, already sued her opponents and the city over the still-pending election results; since the election is neck-and-neck, she is demanding that the Queens Supreme Court review the BOE's tabulations and checks its final results to "determine if they are correct."

The District 19 Council race is not the only local election that remains undetermined in New York City. There are two other close contests in Brooklyn where absentee votes will determine the election.

Related Article: Bayside Council Candidate Sues City Over Pending Election Results