Posted: April 6, 2009

NY-20 congressional race tied for now

The NY-20 race is still in the counting stage and the candidates are now tied according to the most recent report. The Albany Times Union reports that 3,000 of the outstanding absentee ballots were cast by Republicans, 2,200 by Democrats, and 940 by unaffiliated voters. This MSNBC piece from last week discusses candidate Tedisco’s residency situation. He was not permitted to vote for himself in the special election because he does not live in the district. He has said he will move to the district if elected. The piece lists several other elections that have been decided by one vote over the years. In a hearing held today over when to count absentee ballots, Murphy argued that the ballots should be counted 8 days after the election as spelled out in New York election law while the state Republican party argued that absentees and all paper ballots should be counted at the same time as military and overseas ballots which have until April 13 to arrive according to an earlier federal court order. See the Poughkeepsie Journal story here.  See the case page for In re Mondello here which was filed by the state Republican party before the polls closed on the day of the special election. The Supreme Court of New York in Dutchess County, on March 31, ordered the absentee ballots to be held uncounted pending its decision.