Lys Gets 71.4 Percent
East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys, who won election to the town board in his own right on Nov. 6 after being appointed to the seat in January, earned an overwhelming 71.4 percent of the vote, according to the final results released this week by the Suffolk County Board of Elections.
In the final tally, which includes those who voted by absentee ballot or affidavit, Mr. Lys, running on the Democratic/Unity Party and Working Families Party tickets, won 7,912 votes to the 3,164 votes cast for his Republican and Conservative Party challenger, Manny Vilar. The board of elections’ unofficial tally on election night had Mr. Lys winning 6,177 votes to Mr. Vilar’s 2,728 votes, or a 69.3 to 30.7 percent.
Mr. Vilar was elected chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee last Thursday. That election is covered separately in this issue.
Perry Gershon, an East Hampton resident who lost a bid to unseat Representative Lee Zeldin in last month’s election, closed the gap in the final results but still fell short. In the board of elections’ official tally, Mr. Gershon, running on the Democratic and Working Families Party ballots, picked up an additional 12,196 votes to finish with 127,991, or 47.4 percent of the vote.
Mr. Zeldin, who was elected to a third term, gained 8,108 in the final tally, finishing with 139,027 votes, or 51.5 percent, down 1 percent from the election night tally. He appeared on the Republican, Conservative, Independence, and Reform Party ballots. His official margin of victory was far smaller than that of his 2016 re-election campaign, in which he defeated former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst by 16 percentage points.
Kate Browning, a former Suffolk County legislator who finished second among five candidates in the Democratic primary election, appeared on the Women’s Equality ballot despite having thrown her support to Mr. Gershon. She won 2,988 votes, or 1.1 percent, up from 2,756 in the unofficial total.
When the 116th Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, Mr. Zeldin will be in the minority for the first time, Democrats having taken control of the House of Representatives by gaining around 40 seats in the midterm elections. (The outcome of the race in North Carolina’s Ninth District is still pending the outcome of an investigation into fraud.)
In other races, State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, on the Republican, Conservative, Independence, and Reform Party tickets, won re-election with 71,017 votes, or 56.9 percent, to the 53,790 won by his Democratic Party challenger, Gregory-John Fischer, according to the official results. Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele was also re-elected. In the final tally, he won 31,961 votes, or 61.57 percent, to Patrick O’Connor’s 19,953 votes. Mr. Thiele ran on the Democratic, Working Families, Independence, Women’s Equality, and Reform tickets. Mr. O’Connor was the Republican and Conservative Parties’ candidate.