New York Election Officials may Not determine the Results of an ultra-tight Congressional Race before the Jan. 3rd Swearing-In amid an ongoing Court Battle over Contested Ballots.
A Judge is hearing Arguments from each Campaign's Lawyers over Contested Ballots in the Race.
Former Rep. Claudia Tenney (R) had been Leading Anthony Brindisi (D-Incumbent), who represents the 22nd Congressional District, by 12 Votes in an Unofficial Count earlier this month. Then Brindisi had jumped to a 14 Vote lead with 155,625 Votes compared to her 155,611. Tenney then was up by 19 Votes.
The Results have Flipped several times and are expected to Continue Changing before Lawmakers are Sworn-In on Jan. 3rd.
Oswego County Supreme Court Justice, Scott DelConte, does Not believe the Race will be Ready to Call. DelConte, last week, Ordered Election Boards in Eight Counties in the 22nd District to Correct a Number of Errors regarding Challenged Absentee Ballots, saying the Oneida and Madison County Board of Elections Violated Election Laws.
Earlier in December, DelConte Rejected an Argument from the Tenney Campaign that Election Results should be Certified as they stood at the time, prompting the Recanvass efforts.
DelConte blamed the Counting Errors on "the careless or inadvertent failure to follow the mandate of statute and case law" in his Order.
Oneida County's Board of Elections must Canvas 626 remaining Ballots out of the Total 1,797 Ballots under Review, but the Board will Not be able to Complete the Process. The Court Recessed on Dec. 25th, until Jan. 1st, and DelConte told Lawmakers to Prepare to Reconvene on Jan. 4th.
Tenney Lost to Brindisi in the 22nd District's 2018 Congressional Race by about two Percentage Points.
UPDATE
When the Madison County Board of Elections received Affidavit Ballots on Election Day, they didn't immediately Time-Stamp All of them to show when they were Received. Instead, many of the Ballots headed to a Prison Cell for Safekeeping Overnight. So, instead of being Time-Stamped November 3rd, they were Timestamped November 4th, the day after Election Day. The Issue of when Ballots were Time-Stamped created Confusion inside of Justice Delconte's Oswego Courtroom as the Judge tried to determine what Ballots had been Legally Cast in the Country's Final remaining Undecided Race. “We’ve got a serious issue in these other Madison County ballots that were timestamped November 4th," DelConte said. "What’s going on here? Is it humanly possible a person could have handed in a ballot on November 4th."
Mary Egger, a Commissioner from the Madison County Board of Elections, explained that they don't Timestamp Ballots the Day they come in because they can be Secured. She couldn't explain why the Judge said there was a separate Ballot which is Timestamped for November 2nd, but that a Voter Claims was actually handed over on November 3rd.
The Judge put the Question to the Commissioner, "Are you telling me your timestamps don't mean what they say?" She responded "For the most part, yes." A number of Human Errors can also Prevent a Ballot from being Timestamped on the Correct Day, Egger said.
Dustin Czarny, an Election Commissioner in Onondaga County, which NY-22 is Not a part of, said Affidavit Ballots which are Received on Election Day, as well as Absentees, are routinely Timestamped the Next Day. They are Transported under Seal from Polling Sites to the Board of Elections after Polls Close at 9 p.m., Czarny said.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
