After nearly a month of going back and forth about who the winners of the town council seats in the Town of Hempstead were, the Nassau County Board of Elections has released their official election results.

In the Town of Hempstead there were eight candidates running for the three council seats in an at-large election. Republicans Robert Barra, Gary Hudes and Linda Reed were the incumbents trying to hold onto their positions. The incumbents were being challenged by Democrats Norman Scott Banks, Dorothy Goosby, and Rita Kestenbaum as well as Liberals Leeroy Miller and Brian T. Evans.

The three candidates who received the most votes were to be the newest members of the board but weeks after the election ended it was still not clear who those three people were. On Election Night it was announced that the three Democrats had swept the election for the town board. Early the following morning it was announced that Goosby, Banks and Republican Linda Reed were the top vote receivers, with Reed receiving 318 more votes than Democrat Kestenbaum. Less that a week later reports came out that there were some key punch errors and that Kestenbaum was indeed the winner. Barbara Patton, the Democratic Commissioner of Elections told Anton Newspapers that there was no key punch errors but that when the absentee ballots and affidavits were counted, Kestenbaum did appear to be ahead of both Reed and Banks, once again indicating a sweep by the Democrats.

The official numbers have finally been released by the Nassau County Board of Elections and Banks, Goosby and Kestenbaum have been declared the official winners for the town board. Banks received 58,205 votes, Goosby received 58,202, Kestenbaum received 58,046, Reed received 56,681, Hudes received 56,328, Barra received 55,781, Evans received 863 and Miller received 687 votes.

Scott Banks, as he prefers to be called, is a resident of West Hempstead who practices law in Garden City. Goosby, a resident of Hempstead, is a New York State Certified and Registered Dietitian and a published author who recently completed requirements to become a chemistry teacher. She is also the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Town of Hempstead that claims the at-large election system in the town is racially biased. Kestenbaum is a housewife from South Bellmore.

The three new members of the six member board will be sworn into office on Jan. 1.