Lester Chang’s supporters are demanding the Assembly allows him to take his seat.

Chang, a Republican, defeated Democratic assemblyman Peter Abbatte Jr. in Brooklyn’s 49th district, but there’s one issue that may prevent him from taking his seat in January: candidates needed to have lived in the borough they were running in for at least a year before the election.

It appears that Chang didn’t move his address from Manhattan to Brooklyn until February of this year. Chang supporters say that shouldn’t matter at this point.

What You Need To Know

  • The Democratic Assembly Majority is preparing to vote against seating Brooklyn Republican Lester Chang unless he can prove he lives in the borough

  • The Assembly leadership says they asked him for proof but so far have not gotten a response

  • If Democrats vote not to seat Chang, it would trigger a special election for Brooklyn’s 49th Assembly District early next year

“I think the time has passed when that needs to be called into question. We do not allow an entire Assembly district to go in on Nov. 8 and vote for someone that is no their ballot, and then say afterwards, ‘you know what, it’s not election result we’d like to see’?”, said Yiatin Chu, president of the Asian Wave Alliance, at a rally in Dyker Heights Tuesday.

The Assembly is conducting an investigation through its judiciary committee to decide whether Chang should be allowed to serve. The results of that investigation are expected before the end of this month.

If Chang is not seated, Gov. Kathy Hochul would have to call for a special election.

And in South Queens, Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato is celebrating a New York State Supreme Court judge order that the Board of Elections count 94 absentee ballots and four affidavit ballots that had originally been rejected.

The race for the 23rd Assembly district is in a recount right now

She currently leads Republican challenger Thomas Sullivan by seven votes.

The recount is expected to end on Thursday.

Amato believes she will prevail.

“I’ve felt that from the beginning. I work hard, I have a great office, we represent the people well, we work hard for the constituency. And at the end of the day I think we’ll be successful,” she said.

NY1 reached out to Sullivan for a reaction, but haven’t heard back.