Long Islanders will have the chance to reshape local, county government and the courts Tuesday when voters go to the polls for the last day of voting in this year’s general election.
The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Absentee ballots may again be a factor in determining the outcome of some races because election officials have said requests for absentee ballots this year have set records for off-year elections.
As of Monday, the Nassau County Board of Elections had received 19,895 absentee ballots out of 38,348 requested. In Suffolk County, as of its latest available count on Saturday, 13,613 absentee ballots had been received out of 32,259 requested. Absentee ballots postmarked no later than Tuesday can continue to arrive by mail to the counties through Nov. 9.
In the Nassau County Executive’s race, Democratic incumbent Laura Curran faces a challenge to her reelection bid from Republican Bruce Blakeman, a Hempstead Town Council member.
Curran, 53, is a former Baldwin school board member and Nassau County legislator who was elected county executive in 2017. She is seeking a second term in the Nov. 2 election.
Blakeman, 65, served as Deputy Hempstead Town Supervisor under former Democratic town Supervisor Laura Gillen. He also served as a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Also in Nassau the race for district attorney features Democratic state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a former federal prosecutor, against Republican Assistant District Attorney Anne Donnelly, who has been a county prosecutor for 32 years.
Donnelly, 57, of Garden City was deputy chief of the rackets and enterprise bureau in the district attorney’s office. Kaminsky, 43, of Long Beach spent sis years as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York where he worked on corruption, gang and gun cases.
The special election will determine the successor to former District Attorney Madeline Singas, a Democrat who resigned this year to become an associate judge on the State Court of Appeals.
Voters also will decide the district attorney’s race in Suffolk County.
Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini, a Democrat and former county police commissioner; faces Ray Tierney, who has been a federal prosecutor and assistant district attorney in Suffolk County and in Brooklyn.
Tierney isn’t enrolled in a political party, but is running on the Republican and Conservative lines.
Other positions up for election in Nassau County government are the comptroller, clerk, a Family Court judge, and three judge positions in the second, third and fourth districts.
In addition, all 19 seats of the Nassau County Legislature are up for election.
In North Hempstead, voters will choose a town supervisor, which is an open seat after Supervisor Judi Bosworth said she wouldn’t seek a fifth term.
Among other town races are elections for the mayor of Glen Cove; an open seat for town supervisor in Huntington after Supervisor Chad Lupinacci announced he wouldn’t seek reelection; and the town supervisor jobs in Oyster Bay, Smithtown and Riverhead.
In the Suffolk County Legislature, all 18 seats are up for election. Other races in Suffolk County are for sheriff, Family Court judge; county court judge; Babylon town supervisor; and two Suffolk County district court judges in Brookhaven.
Among Suffolk town races, voters in Islip will hold election for town council seats created last year in a settlement of a federal voting rights lawsuit.
Eight judgeships are also up for election the 10th District of state Supreme Court.
Statewide, voters will decide five ballot questions.
Voters are assigned specific polling sites and can find their site through a state Board of Elections portal at https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov/. The races are listed in Newsday’s voters’ guide at newsday.com/votersguide.
