An eerie silence settled over the crowd at Oaklawn Grange.

The polls had been closed for more than 40 minutes, yet there were no results. People looked up from their cell phones, did someone have results…what were they?

And then the chatter resumed. There wasn’t any announcement. No numbers had been filled in the hand drawn sheet to tally the results of the one House District race that had captured the state’s attention.

Then attention diverted from the stage to the back of the room. Wearing a black coat, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello made his entrance. Immediately people stood and applauded.

Still there was no word on the outcome of this hard fought race with Republican Steven Frias. There were no numbers. No body had called it.

The news media swarmed Mattiello, pushing forward cameras and microphones. Camera lights blared.

“So, who won?” one of the reporters asked.

Hardly audible Mattiello announced he had won.

The word spread rapidly and there were more cheers and applause from Mattiello supporters who strained to hear what their candidate had to say.

The news media wanted to know more. What were the numbers?

They were hit with a surprise.

Mattiello said the machine totals showed him down by 146 votes. But Mattiello was confident of victory, saying he was certain of 300 mail ballots.

There were more cheers and Mattiello raised his right arm triumphantly.

“We put those votes in the bank,” Mattiello said of the mail ballots, “so we’re fine.”

As of press time the Board of Elections had Frias with 3,297 votes to Mattiello’s 3,150. According to the board 802 mail ballots were requested. Reports had the mail ballots being certified next week, but that couldn’t be confirmed.

Mattiello said he aims to “keep the state moving in the right direction and most important eliminate the car tax.”

He said the campaign had been hard work. He said he is encouraged by his constituents and that by the end of the day he will work for them 24-7.

“I feel good. It was a tough fought race in a difficult climate,” he said.

In other state races with contests, Senator Hannah Gallo beat Jonathan Keith 6,251 to 5,035 votes; in House District 16 Robert Lancia edged out Christopher Millea, 3098 to 3,084 votes and in House District 19 Joseph McNamara tallied 4,063 votes to David Mastriano’s 2,656.