Losquadro: "Reality Has to Set In" For Incumbent Alessi

Declaring a 906-vote lead after absentee ballot counting, Suffolk County Legislator and First Assembly District candidate Dan Losquadro has called on incumbent Democrat, Marc Alessi, D - Shoreham, to bow out and let him prepare for his stint in Albany.

"At this point, reality has to set in," Losquadro said on Wednesday, adding the Board of Elections verified his numbers. More importantly, Losquadro said "around or under" 300 ballots were challenged, meaning that even if all challenged votes went to Alessi - a little improbable, to say the least - he would still hold over a 600-vote lead.

"I think the prudent thing to do would be for Mr. Alessi to concede," Losquadro said. "Between a truncated week now with Thanksgiving, and many people traveling the week between Christmas and New Year's - including myself - it won't give much time to effectuate a smooth transition. The longer this is drawn out, the less time there is."

Alessi has kept a low profile since Nov. 2, choosing to let the process play itself out. Requests for a response to Losquadro's comments were not returned, and Losquadro said the two camps have yet to communicate since Election Day. Alessi said in a release on Monday that he was waiting to hear from one outlet, and one outlet only.

"Ballots are still being counted and several hundred more have been set aside yet to be counted," the statement read. "Every vote is equally important, and to simply ignore uncounted votes to hasten the process is an insult to the residents of the 1st Assembly District. I will let the Board of Elections let me know who won the race first."

Similar to the First Congressional Race, a relatively drastic change in numbers occurred after unofficial numbers - which gave Losquadro a 40-vote lead - were reported on Election Night. After a recanvass of the Assembly race, Losquadro picked up nearly 850 votes; a recanvass of the race for First Congressional seat resulted in a nearly 4,000-vote swing in favor of Republican challenger Randy Altschuler.

Alessi and Bishop, both concerned at the swing in votes, initially called for hand recounts of ever vote cast. Alessi went so far as to calling to show order why a "voter verifiable record audit (i.e., a recount by hand of the paper ballots)" should not be conducted.

An audit of three percent of the electronic voting machines - which resulted in no errors in 43 machines - may have shown why no such order would be made. However the two are scheduled to appear in court before the end of the month to determine if a hand recount would be requested.