Mattera Leads Siderakis For State Senate District 2

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — In the race for the vacant New York state 2nd Senate District seat, Republican Mario Mattera holds a strong advantage over Democrat Michael Siderakis following Election Day. However, thousands of absentee ballots remain outstanding.

Mattera has a lead of 79,754 votes to Siderakis's 44,637 — or 64.11 to 35.88 percent — with all precincts reporting, according to Suffolk Board of Elections data. There are 35,518 absentee ballots that were received from residents within the district's boundaries. Of those, 17,004 are Democrat, 8,137 are Republican, 485 are Conservative, 1,182 are Independent and 8,555 are blank.

Neither candidate responded to Patch's request for comment.

The board expects to start counting absentee ballots next Tuesday — after it has had the opportunity to remove the absentee ballots of those voters who also cast a ballot on a machine and compare the signatures, as well as have bipartisan teams compare the signatures on the oath envelopes to the voter's signatures on file.

The 2nd District includes Centereach, Commack, Coram, Deer Park, Dix Hills, East Northport, East Setauket, Farmingville, Fort Salonga, Greenlawn, Hauppauge, Huntington, Huntington Station, Kings Park, Lake Grove, Lake Ronkonkoma, Medford, Melville, Nesconset, Northport, Port Jefferson, Port Jefferson Station, Ronkonkoma, Selden, Setauket, South Setauket, Smithtown, St. James and Stony Brook.

The seat is currently vacant following the retirement of Senator John Flanagan, a Republican.