Update: A spokesperson from the Suffolk County Board of Elections said results would likely not be available until later in the day on Wednesday.
Reportedly due to mistakes made by voting inspectors, Tuesday night's primary results for the Democratic nominations for supervisor and town council are being delayed.
According to Democratic Chairman Vinny Villella, who works with the Board of Elections, each ballot box contains two electronic "cards." Villella said in many cases, the wrong card was pulled, resulting in an inability for the voting data to be transferred electronically to BOE headquarters in Yaphank.
"We won't know what's what until tomorrow," said Villella, who along with council candidates Matt Van Glad and Marlando Williams spent the night at the house of Phil Cardinale, supervisor candidate, in South Jamesport.
"The inspectors took the wrong cards out of the machines," he added. "That's what we're hearing."
Cardinale matched up against Greg Fischer in the race for supervisor, while Van Glad and Williams were joined by Ruth Pollack in the town council primary.
"I’m amazed that we’re standing here close to midnight and we absolutely have no numbers," Cardinale said. "When we use to run the numbers from the polls, we would have them at 9:30 or 10:00. So we’re going backwards as far as reporting the numbers."
Members of the Riverhead Democratic Committee surveyed six election districts, in the Wading River-Calverton area, after polls closed at 9 p.m. Committee members were present while inspectors read aloud the results from a physical tape taken from the voting machines containing the results, said Hal Lindstrom, a member of the Democratic Committee.
Results from the tape are conrifmed with the results from the card to ensure reliability; they should line up with each other, Lindstrom said.
According to them, Cardinale led Fischer by a tally of 105 to 32. In the council race, Williams received 104 votes, Van Glad 91, and Pollack 84.
Fischer said in a text message he expected to lose the vote for the town supervisor nomination, but said that his running mate Pollack would win.
"I will give Mr. Cardinalle [sic] his pyrrhic victory," Fischer said. "A couple of our constituancies did not do what they said they would do to support us so I created new resources and focused the new resources on Ruth."
Fischer vowed that he will have a better showing in the general election.
"Our scattered constituancies will be back in a common force for the general election," he said. "It might be better this way."
Check back for updates on this story.
