Nassau County Legislative District 9 candidates Juleigh Chin and Scott Strauss separated by one vote, according to latest count

The race for Nassau County District 9 — the closest legislative contest in Tuesday's election — was still undecided Thursday.

The latest reported vote count, from late Wednesday night, had Roslyn Democrat Juleigh Chin ahead of Mineola Republican Scott Strauss, the incumbent, by just one vote, with 27,548 votes counted. That total includes some absentee ballots, which are still being counted as they arrive.

At midday Thursday, Joe Cairo, the county Republican chairman, was not overly optimistic.

"These are not encouraging, these numbers. On the other hand, this is a local election. We are keeping our hopes that people who know Scott will cross party lines to vote for him," Cairo said, though overall, he said, "We didn’t do well at all ... Democrats came out and voted in large numbers."

In a phone interview Thursday morning, Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said he believed the situation favored his candidate.

Generally, absentee ballots "have been breaking, in the past, over 2-1 Democratic," he said. Ballots postmarked by Election Day will be counted as they arrive through November 10.

The 9th District includes Mineola, North New Hyde Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills, Searingtown, East Williston and parts of New Hyde Park and Williston Park.

Both county leaders said that the timing of the election, on an even year, had been decisive, though they disagreed over the impact.

Cairo said that scheduling local elections along with higher-profile races, like the contest between Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Kathy Hochul for New York State governor, meant that races like the Nassau 9th got "lost in the shuffle." Lower ballot candidates "can’t compete" for voter attention with the more prominent races, he said.

Jacobs said that Chin and other Democrats had benefited from the even-year election’s higher voter turnout. He added: "She’s a great candidate. She was a great candidate last year." 

Strauss, Northwell Health's vice president of security, beat Chin by about 1,800 votes in 2025. In the interim, Chin, a program manager at North Shore University Hospital and a Herricks School Board trustee, stayed active in community affairs, said North Hempstead Town Democratic chair Sabereh Samet. "She did the hard work ... She went to everything, she introduced herself."

Cairo said he doubted that his candidate — a former Mineola mayor and NYPD detective who searched for survivors after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — was suffering from nerves as he waited for the final vote count. "Obviously, anyone in a contest wants to win," Cairo said. "But he's a hero and he's an adult," Cairo said. 

Check back for updates on this developing story.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.