More than 50,000 cast ballots during early voting

More than 50,000 voters or about 4% cast their ballots early in Suffolk County ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, according to the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

On the North Fork, the polling station at the Southold Recreational Center drew voters in the races for Town Board, assessor, clerk, highway superintendent and justice, along with the County Legislature battle between Democrat Greg Doroski and Republican incumbent Catherine Stark.

According to Southold Town Democrats, 3,660 of 18,849 registered voters came out early in Southold as of Oct. 31. In Riverhead, 2,198 of 24,417 took part in early voting.

Turnout over the early voting period from Oct. 25 to Nov. 2 was fairly steady throughout the county, with a weekend surge bringing more than 14,000 voters to the polls.

Sunday saw the largest single-day totals across the county, with 3,270 Republicans and 2,302 Democrats voting.

Overall, Democrats led with roughly 21,000 ballots cast, Republicans followed with nearly 17,500, and independents totaled about 10,600, according to officials.

North Fork voters can find their designated voting sites for Tuesday at voterlookup.elections.ny.gov.

The six candidates running for Southold Town Board include Democrat Brian Mealy, the only incumbent in the race, alongside Alexa Suess and Kate Stevens. The Republican slate features Chris Talbot, Nicholas Planamento and Stephanie Hall.

For Southold Town Trustee, Democrat incumbents Liz Gillooly and Eric Sepenoski are running for reelection, joined by Joe Finora. The Republican ticket features Terri Boyle Romanelli, Nathan Andruski and Pindar Damianos.

The Suffolk Times published endorsements for all the races last week.