Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi in an email to supporters on Monday said he was confident he would pull ahead of his Republican challenger George Santos after being down 4,000 votes after Election Day. 

"We will win," Suozzi wrote in the email, expecting the final outcome to be clear within two weeks.

Suozzi has reason to be confident: Democrats in the Long Island House district requested and as of last week sent back the bulk of the absentee ballots. Board of Elections numbers show Democrats have as of Friday returned 47,039 ballots out of 66,895 requested. Republicans requested 24,997 ballots and as of last week returned 16,004 absentee votes. 

There have also been 20,121 ballots returned from voters who are not enrolled in a party out of more than 30,000 requested. 

The remaining votes are of minor parties.

The absentee ballot distribution is nearly uniform across the state, giving hope to Democratic incumbents and candidates who trailed on Election Day the in-person voting total. Republicans had urged their supporters to cast in-person ballots if they were able to do so. 

“I will keep you updated as the process continues," Suozzi wrote in the email. "Once we celebrate our victory, let’s work together to unite our country and address the very real problems we face."