Griffin, Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick Nearly Tied In 21st AD Race

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY — With all the ballots form Election Day and early voting counted, Assemblywoman Judy Griffin is in a dead heat with challenger Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick to represent the 21st Assembly District. The race will come down entirely to absentee ballots.

As of Wednesday morning, Griffin, a Democrat, and Republican Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick were nearly tied. Griffin has 27,069, or 49.2 percent, and Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick led slightly with 27,516, or 50 percent. Libertarian candidate Barry Leon earned 351 votes, or 0.6 percent.

By the end of Tuesday, the Nassau County Board of Elections had received more than 144,000 absentee ballots, half of which were from Democratic voters. Another 22 percent were from independent voters. The ballots will not start to be counted until next week, which could quite possibly turn the election to Griffin's favor.

Griffin is a first-term Assemblywoman for the 21st AD, which includes Lynbrook, Rockville Centre, Malverne, South Hempstead, Baldwin and parts of Freeport, West Hempstead, Oceanside, East Rockaway, Lakeview, Hewlett, Hempstead, Franklin Square, and Valley Stream.

She said she is confident she will win once the absentee ballots are counted.

"This has been a hard fought re-election. I want to first thank all of my supporters. We knew going in that votes on Election Day would be close," Griffin said in a statement. "There are at least 12,944 absentee ballots to be counted. A majority of which are from Democrats. News12 was wrong to declare a winner in this race. I am confident in a victory after absentee votes are counted."