Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine stands by the election results even as Trump alleges fraud

Officials in Suffolk County on Friday guaranteed the integrity of that county’s voting process even if a candidate alleges fraud, a day before early voting begins in state and local elections.

Officials unveiled a new $2.8 million early voting center in Yaphank that will also serve as a training center for poll inspectors, coordinators and other staff charged with ensuring election integrity.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said he has won 19 elections in the county during his decades-long career in politics and that the voting system is solid.

“I can tell you from long experience that I have never questioned the veracity, efficiency and effectiveness of the Board of Elections,” Romaine said. “They’ve always done a great job… We give them the tools, and they’ll do the work.”

When asked at a press conference what his response would be if Donald Trump, a fellow Republican, loses New York State in the presidential election and claims it is due to fraud, Romaine said he supported the integrity of the system .

“The vote is the vote. The count is the count. And I don’t think the accuracy of the count will be questioned, especially in Suffolk County,” Romaine said.

The new center at 700 Yaphank Rd. is being used to train some of the 5,000 poll workers who will oversee the election, officials said. It is one of the larger training centers in the province, they said.

Officials, including Romaine and the two Board of Elections commissioners — John Alberts for the Democrats and Betty Manzella for the Republicans — said there was little to no chance that Suffolk’s election system would be tampered with. It is not possible for a hacker to break into the system because it is not connected to the internet, Manzella said.

When asked how specifically the county trains poll workers to detect and combat fraud, Manzella said she could not reveal that for security reasons.

The county is in regular contact with the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the New York State Board of Elections and multiple law enforcement agencies, including some of their cybersecurity units, she said. “We are prepared for anything,” she said.

The new center can train about 100 workers, compared to other locations that can fit only 20 to 30 workers, Alberts said. The employees must be certified every year, including on changes in election laws, he said.

The new center also aims to increase the number of people who vote early, officials said. About 120,000 Suffolk County residents voted early in the 2020 presidential election, Alberts said. That number is expected to rise to about 200,000 this year, he said.

There are 28 early voting centers in the county, including for the first time the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge, Alberts said.

Officials expect a significant number of early voters will use the new center in Yaphank in part because it is centrally located between the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway. The center – and others across Suffolk – also offer weekend, early morning and evening hours to accommodate people’s work schedules.

The county has set aside $35 million to replace all voting machines in Suffolk next year as part of its efforts to maintain voting integrity, Romaine said.

Early voting begins on October 26 and ends on November 3.