Protesters gathered outside Huntington Town Hall on Tuesday evening to demand answers to questions about irregularities in the recent town board election. Credit: Rick Kopstein
By Deborah S. Morrisdeborah.morris@newsday.comdsvmorrisUpdated November 18, 2025 9:32 pm
About 80 protesters gathered outside Huntington Town Hall Tuesday evening to bring attention to their concerns about irregularities in the recent town board election that included candidates who never campaigned ahead of Election Day.
With about six Suffolk County police officers standing watch, the people at the peaceful gathering held signs with messages that included "Voters Demand Answers" and "Stop the Steal." They also demanded free and fair elections.
The protest, held before the monthly board meeting, comes after published reports that a Huntington Station woman, Maria Delgado, said she didn’t know she was a Working Families Party candidate for town supervisor on the November ballot. Running with her were a slate of other candidates — George B. Bergbuchler, Chris Haines and Erick Greene — who did not campaign, according to Newsday.Michael Pastore, a Huntington Manor fire commissioner, and longtime town employee Kurtis Greene collected petition signatures for all four candidates, which triggered a primary in June against the four Democratic candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party: Cooper Macco for supervisor, Jen Hebert and Stephen Anastasia for town council and Vincent Colavita for highway superintendent.
Republican incumbent Supervisor Ed Smyth beat Macco by 602 votes, according to unofficial returns from the Suffolk County Board of Elections.
Smyth declined to comment to Newsday after Tuesday evening's board meeting.
Delgado garnered 1,195 votes in the supervisor's race, about 3% of the total, Newsday reported. On Wednesday, the state Attorney General's Office said it was reviewing complaints about the race.
Quinn Dell, 41, of Huntington Station, and an organizer of the protest, said that after the election, questions on Facebook about Delgado, how close the race was, and the other unknown candidates mirrored her own.
"From there, it turned into a call for action," Dell said. "I felt it was really important for the community to get some answers because we all had a lot of questions, so just to amplify our voices," noting that the questions transcended political parties.
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She said there is one unifying factor, and the goal of the protest."We want to know if our vote counted, if it was a free and fair election," she said. "I’m really proud of the community. There’s a little bit of light where we’ve come together, and I don’t think I’ve felt that in a long time.”
Huntington resident Nina Fleisig said she came out because she wanted to hear more about what happened because people are not going to come out to vote if they don’t think it matters.
"I think something fishy is going on with our local elections," she said. "More needs to be done to make elections fair and to make sure everyone’s vote counts."
Several speakers addressed the board about the election results during the town board meeting. To cheers, some asked for law enforcement investigations and a revote and questioned what they considered unethical behavior.
"Faith and the fairness in this year’s town election has declined," said Huntington Bay resident John Woodward.East Northport resident Denise Schwartz held a sign as she addressed the board that read: "No Ghosts on our Ballot.”
"What happened in this election is questionable to say the least," Schwartz said. "There are way too many questions and was a line crossed? Not fair, not ethical ... legal, we’re not sure.”
By Deborah S. Morris
deborah.morris@newsday.comdsvmorris
Deborah Morris is a native Long Islander and covers the town of Huntington.