ALBANY COUNTY — Patricia Fahy, the Democratic incumbent representing District 109 in the State Assembly, bested her opponent, Libertarian Robert G. Porter, winning 68 percent of the vote on Tuesday.

This was a rematch from two years ago when Porter, who worked in law enforcement for the Marines for 21 years, was a Republican.

Fahy, who has held the post since 2012, garnered 31,456 votes on the Democratic line and 1,522 on the Independence Party line.

Porter received 13,168 votes on the Republican line, 1,879 on the Conservative line, and 515 on the Libertarian line.

All of these results are unofficial, posted by the Albany County Board of Elections on Tuesday night. Absentee ballots have yet to be tallied.

An unprecedented number of residents voted by mail in this election. Any New Yorker qualified for an absentee ballot this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Altogether, Albany County gave out 38,161 paper ballots, Matthew Clyne, the county’s Democratic election commissioner, told The Enterprise on Tuesday. As of Tuesday, he said, 28,557 had come back to the board of elections.

He also said, “Paper ballots reflect the machine vote. They break down in the same proportion.”

The differences between Fahy and Porter are stark.

Fahy, for example, is calling for federal aid to help the state with the coronavirus recession and is looking at creative ways to raise more in taxes. Porter said the state should solve its own problems and not call on the federal government for a bail-out; he wanted to cut taxes, believing it would inspire growth.

The district, which is heavily Democratic, was reconfigured in 2012 after its longtime representative, Democrat John McEneny, retired; the district covers Bethlehem, Guilderland, New Scotland, and the western part of Albany where both candidates live.

Since the six-way race in the Democratic primary after McEneny retired, Fahy has won all of her races with close to 70 percent of the vote.

District 109, as of Feb. 21, has 49,537 Democrats, 21,346 registered voters not enrolled in any party, 16,072 Republicans, 4, 608 members of the Independence Party, 1,454 Conservatives, and fewer than 1,000 voters enrolled in other small parties.

Fahy raised over $67,000 for the race, according to the state’s board of elections while Porter was not in the database. “I don’t ask for contributions. I don’t think we should pay politicians to get elected to spend our money,” Porter said during his campaign

Eight years ago, Fahy ran on the issues of education and jobs. She has added stemming climate change to her top priorities. Despite the current health and economic crises, she told The Enterprise during her campaign, “We cannot forget about climate change. It grows worse by the day.”

On police reform, Fahy said, the killing of George Floyd “broke the political logjam.” She supported the reform package that was passed this summer, including repeal of 50-a, making police records available to the public.

While Fahy is a co-sponsor of a bill for single-payer health insurance, she says she expects the bill will “remain stuck.” She notes that the cost of single-payer health insurance would be “prohibitively expensive” and says the issue has to be dealt with nationally.

“That it is not something New York can do alone,” Fahy said.

Statewide assessment standards for fair taxes is not a priority now, Fahy said, “unless it would produce serious savings.”

 While there has certainly been an uptick in gun violence under COVID, Fahy said, New York has some of the strongest gun-safety laws in the nation and proportionately is one of the safest states.

Fahy said she works hard to feel the pulse of the community. “I try to use my voice for the voiceless,” she said. “I never forget how humbled and how honored I am to serve.”