More than 18,500 Nassau County voters have already cast their ballots for the Nov. 4 election, lodging their choices for county executive, district attorney and several other races in what officials say is a higher turnout than four years ago.
Of the nearly 1 million active voters in Nassau, the election could be determined by a select few. In 2021, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman defeated then-incumbent Laura Curran by 2,150 votes. Voter turnout for local elections averages about 30%, compared to about 70% for presidential elections, according to Mike Dawidziak, a pollster and Republican political strategist.
“Most people don’t even know there’s an election coming up,” Dawidziak told Newsday earlier this month. “They’re going to hear far more about the New York City races than races in Nassau or Suffolk.”
Among the races is the competition for Nassau County executive, where Blakeman is vying for reelection against his Democratic challenger, Seth Koslow. Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly, a Republican, is facing Democratic challenger Nicole Aloise, and voters in 10 of 13 towns will decide supervisor races. Newsday published a 2025 Long Island voter’s guide with information on each candidate.
EARLY VOTING HOURS
NASSAU COUNTY
Monday: 7 a.m.-6 p.m.
Tuesday: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Wednesday: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Friday: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Sunday: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
SUFFOLK COUNTY
Monday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Tuesday: 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
Wednesday: 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
Thursday: Noon-8 p.m.
Friday: Noon-8 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Nassau is seeing higher voter turnout than it did in 2021, according to a spokesperson for the county’s Board of Elections.
In the New York City mayoral race, where voters are deciding between Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, the first weekend of early voting finished with more than five times as many people showing up to cast ballots — 243,599 — as over the same period in 2021, when the number was 46,594, according to the city’s Board of Elections.
In Nassau, a total of 9,102 voters cast their ballots early on Saturday, with more than 4,300 registered Republicans turning out, nearly 3,300 registered Democrats, and nearly 1,200 independent voters, according to the county’s Board of Elections.
Another 9,400 Nassau voters cast their absentee ballots, according to a source. As of Friday, more than 5,000 were Democrats, nearly 2,900 were Republicans and nearly 1,300 were independent voters.
Early voting numbers in Nassau for Sunday were not immediately available.
The Suffolk County Board of Elections did not immediately respond to an inquiry about early voting data.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail or online has passed, but voters can still request one in person at their county’s board of election office through Nov. 3.
Early voting runs through Sunday, Nov. 2, and Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Residents can check their local early voting site and Election Day site on the state Board of Elections website: voterlookup.elections.ny.gov.
Newsday interviewed a dozen people around Nassau this month about their views on the county executive race — a car mechanic in Freeport, a woman folding clothes at a nearby laundromat, a pizza maker in Massapequa. Many did not know Blakeman or Koslow, or that there was an election on Nov. 4.
Jess S., an Oceanside mother who was watching her kid play soccer at Valley Stream State Park, put it this way: “I see the lawn signs, but I don’t know who’s Democrat, who’s Republican, or what they’re running for.”
Newsday’s Matthew Chayes contributed to this story.