CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Brooklynites gatherer at Grand Army Plaza, Senator
Chuck Schumer joins partiers, hordes of people fi ll a local street, a young
Brooklynite waves an LGBTQ fl ag, revelers pop champagne, and a woman honors
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris
BOE begins counting
absentee ballots crucial
for southern BK races
COURIER LIFE, NOV. 13-19, 2020 5
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city’s Board of Elections began
counting the thousands of absentee
ballots cast during the general
election — with historically
high mail-in votes potentially deciding
the outcome of three down-ballot
races in southern Brooklyn, where
Republicans gained an early lead
over Democratic incumbents with
in-person votes.
Most prominently, Republican
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis
is ahead of Democratic Congressman
Max Rose by 37,158 votes in
New York’s 11th Congressional District,
which spans from Gravesend
to Bay Ridge and includes all of
Staten Island.
BOE has received 48,259 absentee
ballots from that district, some
57 percent of which came back
from registered Democrats — yet,
Rose would have to win at least 77
percent of the ballots to catch up to
Malliotakis.
In the 22nd state Senate district,
which stretches from Bay Ridge to
Marine Park, incumbent Democrat
Andrew Gounardes is currently behind
former nightclub owner Vito
Bruno by 6,035 votes — although registered
Democrats hold an 8,971 person
advantage in outstanding ballots
over Republicans, giving Gounardes
a solid chance to catch up.
While Rose and Gounardes
fl ipped their districts blue during
the last election cycle in 2018, the
46th Assembly District in Coney Island,
which has been blue for more
than 80 years, currently has Republican
QAnon supporter Mark Szuszkiewicz
ahead of fi rst-term Democratic
legislator Mathylde Frontus
by 2,822 votes in the in-person votes.
However, 7,081 absentee votes are
still in play for that district, 4,525 of
which came from Democrats, versus
1,035 from Republicans.
PARTY!!
with outoor celebrations
city and country.
Hundreds gathered
in Times Square and
Washington Square
Park in Manhattan to
mark the occasion —
the largest public parties
in New York City
in months due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Spectators wore masks
as they cheered, danced
and sang in delight of
the outcome.
Across the city, drivers
honked their horns
and pedestrians applauded.
In Brooklyn,
people danced to live
music provided by a
band along Columbia
Street between DeGraw
and Sackett Streets in
the Columbia Street Waterfront
District.
Gail Ressler said she
felt “relieved” and “excited”
by the outcome.
“I could hear the
noise outside, so I came
outside,” she said.
“There’s nowhere else
I’d rather be — maybe
Philadelphia.”
The jubilant crowd
also cheered the arrival
of a U.S. Postal
Service worker — a
particularly essential
worker throughout the
election process due to
the delivery of mail-in
ballots.
The festive mood
continued near the Barclays
Center, where
people danced in celebration.
Party-goers
A. Croom of Bedford-
Stuyvesant proudly
waved the American
fl ag as she partied.
“I feel phenomenal,
phenomenal,” Croom
said. “My girlfriend told
me about it while I was
in the shower.” After
hearing the news, she
headed over to the Barclays
Center, she said,
“to support my community.”
Additional reporting
by Kevin Duggan and
Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech