Posted on 11/12/2009 4:25:08 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
GOUVERNEUR, NY - Despite the fact that Bill Owens has already been sworn-in and has voted on crucial legislation in the House of Representatives, he may not have actually won the NY-23 Congressional Special Election.
Several errors were made during the initial vote counts. Over 2,000 votes for contender Doug Hoffman were not counted in the preliminary results, narrowing the current vote gap to less than 3,000 votes between Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman.
The errors were discovered during the standard vote recanvas that has been underway since November 4th. The largest error occurred in Oswego County where the vote recanvas found a discrepancy of more than 1,200 votes in Doug Hoffman's favor. Another error, in Jefferson County contributed an additional 700 votes in Hoffman's favor during the recount.
The election was close enough even on election night that the New York State Board of Elections was unable to present a "clear decision" in the race according to John Conklin, Communications Director for the department. He said that the Board sent a letter to the Clerk of the House of Representatives in Washington indicating that they could not yet determine a winner and could therefore not certify the election until after the recanvas and absentee ballot count. Those final numbers will not be available until at least mid-December.
Nancy Pelosi was only able to legally swear-in Bill Owens because Doug Hoffman had conceded the election, indicating that he did not contest the initial, and now shown erroneous, results, something he may not have done if he had been aware of how close the election was.
Mr. Hoffman told the Gouverneur Times that he felt at the time that he "was being a good sport" in doing so. With 93% of the polls in and counted and a margin of over 5,000 votes in favor of Owens, he felt he had lost the election. He now says that "while hindsight is 20/20, if I had known it was that close, I probably would have waited."
Bill Owens was sworn in 2 days later and proceeded to vote in favor of Pelosi's health care bill the following day. While Mr. Hoffman feels that deliberately contesting the results of the election to prevent Owens' deciding vote in the Health Care bill would "not have been very sportsmanlike," and that he, personally, would not like to see a politician manipulate events in that manner, he also indicated that the good of the American people and the citizens of the 23rd district would have weighed in on that decision as well.
As it stands now, Bill Owens may be in Washington and voting the Pelosi Party line but when the vote is certified he may be ousted. The state Board of Elections indicated that "...all ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to be removed." Concession speech or not, if the voters in the 23rd District elected Doug Hoffman and not Bill Owens, then Hoffman will be the Representative.
There are currently over 10,000 uncounted absentee ballots, many of which were in the military where a strongly conservative bias exists. Given the narrow margin of Owens' lead at this time, it's entirely possible that this race could still swing for Hoffman.
Sources indicate that the Democrats would not have had the votes to pass the Health bill if Owens had not been sworn-in and pledged his support for it. Several other Representatives have indicated that they would not have cast their votes in favor of the bill if they were not certain that it had the votes to win.
The lone republican gives them the victory if they don’t count Owens vote.
If NY23 flips to Hoffman, the earthquake will be felt coast to coast from Alaska to Florida.
The fig leaf of “we didn’t want them Governorships and we converted a Republican seat” will be ripped off and the naked truth — that people are bucking off the saddle and spurs of fascism will be there to see.
A Democrat today is lower than human. The Democrat voter is no better that any one we already have in prison.
Used to be, when the RATs would steal an election, the sucker would stay stole! They’re slipping...
10,000 uncounted absentee ballots, including military??? Oh boy!
Reality check: 10,000 absentee ballots aren’t going to cut it. Given the fact that it was a three-way election when some of those were sent in, it’ll be hard to overcome a 3,000 vote deficit.
But I would LOVE to eat crow on this.
If one of those yes votes had switched to a no the vote would have been a tie and the bill would have failed to pass.
They still have to pass the conference committee bill and if Owens loses his seat they may not have the votes.
Hoffman conceded in a dignified and civilized manner.
Unfortunately, the Dems do not play the “dignified and civilized” game.
They play to win.
We really need to get dialed in on that.
You are 100% correct. The democrat party is little more than a vast organized crime gang.
Let’s see - the Democrats hailed this single election as a confirmation of the Democrats’ victory and acceptance throughout the nation. Ignore NJ and VA!
What will they say if Hoffman wins this? Waiting...
well the republican who voted for the Govt health only voted because he thought his vote would not count but it seems it might do now .
So if Hoffman does get it , big if but say he does then how would this affect the Govt health take over?
This is why the GOP should never give in until ALL votes are counted.
McCain gave in and the military votes were not counted in FL, VA, NC.
Then look at what happened in IN. it seemed more votes came on for Mccain a week later but dozy get just gave ion because that is what he was doing all the time, because he wanted to have a nice campaign, a gentlemans campaign so to speak
ARF
Won't matter. The traitor Coa killed it for us, plus we would still need two 'Rats to flip. Would they do it based on the reaction of their constituents after the vote? They might want to, but the 'Rat leadership would destroy them. They're better off counting on the stupidity of the idiots who elected them.
“Also jawdroppingly amazing is that citizens and/or cities, states and municipalities are not DEMANDING proof of identity for anyone who votes anywhere in this nation. As long as there is no proof of ID, there is phenomenal opportunity for fraudulent votes.”
As far as ID goes, a state ID card or driver’s license will do and you don’t have to be a citizen to get one of those. Cast a vote electronically on election day using your license as ID, and how is that being checked that you are truly a citizen?
Would the pundiots still point to NY23 as the way for the GOP to go??
PRay for America’s Freedom
agreed
why the hell was he allowed to vote before his swear in anyway ?
The GOP should have gone mad and stopped this but of course the GOP gives in as usual
Since he wasn’t certified, does that mean his vote doesn’t count even though he was sworn in?
How does something like this work?
If we win this, the Repubs should demand the healthcare vote be done again.
As usual, they ?find? a bunch of votes for the Acorn candidate
Some how, Norm Coleman and Al Frankenstein come to mind.
A case study of VOTER FRUAD!
How? The vote was 220-215. We still lose with Hoffman voting no and Coa flipping back to us.
But that's moot. That vote is in the books. It can't be changed.
Exactly right, CounterCounterCulture.
Have they counted all the “votes” from the Chicago cemeteries for Owens yet? And then counted them again?
Looks like we naughty, naughty Republicans are trying to “steal” another election from the noble Dims.
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