Embattled Brooklyn Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus has pulled ahead of her Republican rival — an apparent supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory — after mail-in votes were counted in her district, according to sources.
The first-term Dem had trailed GOP challenger Mark Szuszkiewicz by 2,822 votes in the machine count on election night — 17,852 to 15,030 — in the typically blue 46th Assembly District, which takes in the southern Brooklyn neighborhoods of Sea Gate and Coney Island and parts of Brighton Beach, Gravesend and Bay Ridge.
But there were at least 3,919 absentee ballots to be counted. The lion’s share — 2,581 were cast by Democrats, along with 829 deemed “blank” or having no party affiliation, and just 408 from Republicans.
Brooklyn Democratic Party sources said Frontus had pulled ahead by a razor-thin 398 votes after most of the absentee ballots were counted on Tuesday.
“Frontus will pull through. She will be declared the winner,” a party insider said.
Frontus was optimistic but stopped short of declaring victory in a tweet Tuesday.
“Hi everyone! My race still hasn’t been called. At last count I was up by a couple hundred votes, but my team and I are all patiently waiting for the BOE to provide the certified results and let us know what the final tally is,” Frontus said.
“We’re almost there. Just have to wait a bit longer.”
Szuszkiewicz, a Coney Island native, has expressed support for QAnon in Instagram and Twitter posts. QAnon promotes conspiracy theories that claims prominent Democrats are pedophiles and who run a child sex-trafficking ring and work to destroy President Trump.
Szuszkiewicz told The Post on Tuesday night he was only trailing by a little more than 100 votes, with hundreds of disputed ballots yet to be counted. He is not conceding and said the race could go to a recount.
He said Trump’s strong showing at the top of the ticket and voters’ disgust with Frontus’ support for bail reform aided his candidacy. Trump led Democrat Joe Biden by more than 3,000 votes in the machine count in the 46th AD.
“Voters wanted a law-and-order candidate,” he said.
Frontus has had her own problems. Sources said she doesn’t work well with other elected officials and burns through staffers.
Last year, The Post reported that she had secured $100,000 in state funds for a think tank that didn’t exist.