Hicksville Election 2020: What You Need To Know

HICKSVILLE, NY — Hicksville voters were lining up Tuesday morning to fill out their ballots for Congress and New York State Legislature. Polls in New York opened at 6 a.m. and will remain open until 9 p.m. on Election Day, which comes after about 100 million votes were cast nationwide before Tuesday as the nation holds a referendum on President Donald Trump and his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hicksville voters will cast their ballots for Congress, as well as for New York State Senate and Assembly, both of which are currently controlled by Democrats. Incumbents who will defend their seats on Hicksville ballots this year include President Donald Trump, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, Assemblyman Michael Montesano and state Sen. Anna Kaplan.

The deadline to register to vote in New York was Oct. 9. You can check your voting status on the Secretary of State's website, where you can also find your polling place.

New York's 3rd Congressional District

Suozzi, an attorney and certified public accountant, is a political veteran to say the least. The Democrat was first elected to represent the district in 2017, but served as Nassau County executive from 2002 to 2009 and as Glen Cove mayor for seven years before that beginning in 1994.

Suozzi is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, the chamber's chief tax-writing committee. He also serves on both the Oversight and Tax Policy subcommittees.

Some of his key votes as a congressman include voting in favor of impeaching Trump, against funding a border wall and limiting illegal immigration, against making it a crime for someone to perform an abortion at 20 weeks, and against Republican legislation to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

He was ranked 28th most conservative compared to House Democrats by GovTrack.

Republican challenger George A. D. Santos, of Queens, is a financial professional who wants to take on "a radical regime," according to TheIslandNow.com.

"He has poorly managed his budget," Santos told the news outlet about Suozzi. "I'm the antidote to all the wasteful spending. I don't see why a congressman from Long Island should have to hop on a first-class airplane flight when you could take the train to Washington."

Santos was born in Jackson Heights to Brazilian immigrant parents and studied economics and finance at Baruch College. He has done stints at CitiGroup and Goldman Sachs and most recently led a business development team at LinkBridge Investors.

From 2013 to 2018, he ran a non-profit animal rescue organization called Friends of Pets United.

Santos' campaign platform includes tax cuts for the middle class, supporting charter schools and vocational education, immigration enforcement, tough anti-gang measures, mental health screenings for students, embracing nuclear power as a renewable energy source and protecting the right to bear arms.

"America is under attack," he said in a statement announcing his campaign. "This time the attack is within. It's coming from radical leftists who are trying to destroy our most basic traditions and the very foundations of our Constitutional Republic."

Bob Cohen and Howard Rabin are also on the ballot this year, running on the Working Families Party and Libertarian lines, respectively.

The 3rd congressional district includes parts of eastern Queens, as well as all or parts of Great Neck, Port Washington, Glen Cove, Oyster Bay, Plainview, Hicksville, Bethpage, Old Westbury, Huntington, Northport, Kings Park, Commack and Melville.

New York Assembly District 15

In the race for District 15, incumbent Republican Assemblyman Michael Montesano seeks re-election against Democratic challenger Joe Sackman III.

Montesano, of Glen Head, was elected to the state Assembly in 2010. He was a police officer and detective for the NYPD for a decade and also served as an EMT supervisor and investigator for the NYC Emergency Medical Service, according to his biography on the state's website. He is a former president of the Nassau County Criminal Courts Bar Association and former President of the Nassau County Magistrates Association. He has also served as president, vice president and trustee of the North Shore School District Board of Education.

Montesano is a member of several committees: Ways and Means, Codes, Ethics and Guidance, Judiciary and Oversight, Analysis and Investigation.

Sackman's career experience includes working as a research coordinator in veterinary medicine. He previously served as a volunteer activist for five years at the left-leaning super political action committee Wolf-PAC, which aims to amend the U.S. Constitution to mitigate corruption stemming from money in politics. He served as a rank-and-file member, organizer, state director, national coordinator and advisory council member at the organization.

The district includes parts of Hicksville, Bethpage, Farmingdale, Syosset, Muttontown, Brookville, Oyster Bay, East Norwich, Locust Valley and Bayville.

See also:

• New York Assembly District 15 Election: Meet Michael Montesano
  
• New York Assembly District 15 Election: Meet Joe Sackman

New York Senate District 5

In the race for state Senate District 5, incumbent Democratic Sen. Anna Kaplan faces Republican challenger Dave Franklin.

Kaplan, of Great Neck, was born in Iran to a Jewish family. Her parents sent her to the United States for safety during the Islamic Revolution. She arrived in Brooklyn and was sent to live with a foster family in Chicago, where she learned English and completed high school. The U.S. government later granted her political asylum.

After her family reunited, they moved to Queens, where Kaplan graduated from Yeshiva University Stern College for Women, and later Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She settled in Great Neck with her husband and two daughters. In 2011, Kaplan was elected as Town of North Hempstead councilwoman in District 4. She won election to the state Senate two years ago, defeating then-incumbent Republican Elaine Phillips with 55 percent of the vote. Kaplan became the first political refugee and the first Iranian-American elected to the New York state Senate.

Franklin has lived in Port Washington for over three decades and served as a police commissioner for the Port Washington Police District from 2011 to 2019. He managed dozens of uniformed officers and a $20 million budget, helped craft policy, negotiated fair contracts with the police union and helped restructure the administration.

Franklin also has private sector experience, working as a technician and engineer for HBO for nearly four decades.

The district includes parts of Great Neck, Port Washington, Manhasset, Roslyn, Old Westbury, Westbury, Lake Success, Mineola, Floral Park, Elmont, New Cassel, New Hyde Park and Hicksville.

See also:

• New York Senate District 7 Candidates: Meet Anna Kaplan
• New York Senate District 7 Candidates: Meet Dave Franklin

Presidential Election

In what's shaping up to be one of the most anticipated presidential elections in recent memory, incumbent Republican President Donald Trump will try to fend off a tough foe in former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden has held a healthy lead in the polls in recent weeks — FiveThirtyEight's website shows Biden has an average of advantage of 10.5 points as of Wednesday, up from 8.2 on Oct. 1. The site notes that polling averages are adjusted based on state and national polls. Candidates' averages can change even if no new polls are added to the calculation.

Historic Early Voting

Nassau County voters turned out early in droves, following a pattern seen nationwide. More than 144,000 absentee ballots were requested by Republicans and Democrats in Nassau, a spokeswoman for the county Board of Elections told Patch on Friday afternoon. About 99,000 of those were requested by registered Democrats and about 45,000 were by registered Republicans

About 93,000 absentee ballots were returned: about 65,000 from registered Democrats and 28,000 from registered Republicans, the Board of Elections said.

Furthermore, about 171,000 people in Nassau voted early, including about 82,000 registered Democrats and 48,800 registered Republicans.

While there was no early voting in 2016, the spokeswoman said, the number of absentee ballots requested and returned in 2020 has been "tremendously larger." In 2016, about 48,000 absentee ballots were cast in all in Nassau County.

How To Vote

There are several ways residents can vote this year: mailing in their ballot, voting early and voting on election day.

Mail-In Voting

Vote-by-mail applications must be received by the Nassau County clerk by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27. Subscribe The ballot itself must either be personally delivered to the board of elections no later than the close of polls on Election Day, or postmarked by a governmental postal service not later than the day of the election and received no later than the 7th day after the election.

Voting On Election Day

Polls in New York are open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Election Day.

You can find your assigned polling place by visiting the New York State Board of Elections website. For questions about voting in Garden City, contact the Nassau County Board of Elections at 516-571-VOTE (8683).