Brooklyn, NY –  (GreekNewsOnline)

One of the Greek American State Senators that is trailing at the November 3^rd election is Andrew Gounardes, at the Senate District 22, that includes Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Gravesend, Gerritsen Beach, Manhattan Beach and Marine Park.

As of 1:25 a.m. Wednesday, with 97.44 percent of scanners reporting, Bruno had 53.95 percent of the vote (40,621) and Gounardes had 45.94 percent (34,586).

According to a statement issued by State Senator Andrew Gounardes, the race is far from over:

 “There are several thousand in-person votes which have not been reported, nearly 13,000 mail-in ballots which have been returned already, plus additional mail-in ballots which have not been processed or received. The outcome of this election will hinge on these votes, and I am confident that once these votes are counted, we will prevail. As we wait for the democratic process to play out, I could not be more grateful to every voter, volunteer, supporter, and member of my team who worked tirelessly on behalf of our campaign, and to each and every member of our community. The work continues.”

Speaking to his supporters via ZOOM, Gounardes said:

“The bottom line here, just like every other election, is we want to make sure every vote is counted, and for those of you who are veterans of team Gounardes, we know that we’ve been through this before, you know that in 2018 we had to wait about two weeks before we were able to certify our election. We had to go to paper. We had to make sure that every vote is counted then and we have to make sure that every vote is counted now.”

According to the New York Post, under state law, the Board of Elections cannot begin to tally the absentee ballots until after Election Day. Officials say they plan to begin the count Monday.

Andrew Gounardes and three other Democratic State Senators have been targeted by extensive negative ads paid by the conservative PAC “Safe Together New York”. Billionaire Ronald Lauder paid $4,5 to the PAC in order to defeat these Democrats, who were accused for being soft on crime, for letting dangerous criminals out without bail and other unfounded accusations. .

Gounardes hit back with charges of his own, highlighting Bruno’s claim to The New York Times in 1983 that he paid cops off so they would turn a blind eye to illegal parties he organized and reports that he fetched drugs for legendary comic John Belushi, who later died of an overdose.

During the BLM protests, Andrew Gounardes marched in Brooklyn with Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.