BOE: Southampton Ballot Count Pushed Until Friday, at Least

Absentee ballots that could determine the outcome of a still-undecided town board race won't be counted until at least Friday, according to Anita Katz, Democratic Commissioner with the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

Nearly 1,200 Southampton Town absentees were sent out in total, with 829 arriving as of Tuesday, according to election officials. Katz said no more ballots had come in between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ballots will determine a three-way town board race for one open seat, as incumbent Democrat of second-place .

Scalera, a Republican, currently holds an unofficial 85-vote lead over Independence candidate for the second Town Council seat — and Bender holds an 84-vote lead over Republican .

Both Bender and Scalera were endorsed by the Independence Party.

The BOE will accept absentee ballots until Nov. 15, as long as they are postdated prior to Election Day. Military ballots will be accepted until Nov. 21.

An official at the BOE said a handful of hotly contested legislative races were being counted in the former part of the week, with town races filling up the latter and likely into next week.

The breakdown for the absentee ballots, as of Tuesday morning, goes as follows:

Bender said last Thursday night that, "no matter the outcome, I still win. Look what I've accomplished. Coming from a community association in a highly Republican town. A local working guy against an opponent they had to bring from outside the district ... To go against the Republican machine in this town that's so ingrained, I think we did damn good."

Requests for comment from Scalera and Hughes were not returned.

CORRECTION: In an earlier version of the story, Bender was quoted as saying "imbred" (sic). In fact, Bender used the word "ingrained."