Losquadro Doubts Enough Evidence for Hand Recount Will Mount by Monday

Republican Suffolk County legislator said this week that he doubts if there will be enough evidence by Monday for a judge to rule on whether or not a is necessary to determine who will represent the First District in the New York State Assembly.

Workers at the Suffolk County Board of Elections are in the midst auditing the county's new electronic voting machines after incumbent , D - Shoreham, requested a hand recount last week. After a recanvass of the Assembly race, Losquadro — a dramatic turn of events from his tallied after the polls closed on Nov. 2.

"The auditing process is methodical and slow, but they have yet to find any problems with the voting system," Losquadro said in a phone interview on Thursday.

Losquadro added that he as of Thursday had not heard from the Board of Elections regarding any initial tallies of absentee ballots, which were supposed to be counted on Wednesday.

"At the pace this audit seems to be going, I doubt they've even gotten to the absentee ballots yet," he said. "And unless the Board of Elections can finish the audit and count the absentees by Monday, I don't think a judge can make a ruling, because that ruling has to be based on evidence, and I don't think there will be any to present."

Losquadro's lead over Alessi remains at 892 votes. Alessi did not return phone calls for comment but said in an interview with Patch this past Monday that he was concerned with the "wild swings (in votes) that have never happened historically."

"As far as I'm concerned, this is not about me and Dan Losquadro anymore," Alessi said on Monday. "I want to make sure we have a legitimate process we can depend upon. The bedrock of democracy is fair elections to ensure the will of voters."