Posted on 11/12/2009 2:09:01 PM PST by American Dream 246
Democrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided by a count of absentee ballots.
The Associated PressDemocrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided by a count of absentee ballots.» Updated county-by-county NY-23 vote totals (PDF)Washington -- Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County.
As it turns out, neither was true.
But Hoffman’s concession -- based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted -- set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill.
Democratic Rep. Bill Owens was quickly sworn into office on Friday, a day before the rare weekend vote in the House of Representatives. His support sealed his party’s narrow victory on the health care legislation.
Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.
In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes -- 12,748 to 11,000.
The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections.
Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday.
Conklin said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election. But the letter noted that Owens still led by about 3,000 votes, and that the special election was not contested -- two factors that legally allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to swear in Owens on Friday.
"We sent a letter to the clerk laying out the totals," Conklin said. "The key is that Hoffman conceded, which means the race is not contested. However, all ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to be removed."
Before Owens was sworn in Friday, Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat who won a special election in California, was sworn in Thursday. The two gave Pelosi the votes she needed to reach a majority of 218 and pass the historic health care reform legislation in the House.
The bill passed 220-215 late Saturday with the support of only one Republican. The Republican, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana, said he voted for the legislation only after seeing that Democrats had the 218 votes needed for passage.
Now Hoffman, who campaigned against the health care reform bill, is carefully watching as the 23rd District race tightens and he is left to wonder if he conceded too soon.
"I don’t know if we would have conceded on election night," Rob Ryan, Hoffman’s campaign spokesman, said Wednesday while discussing the latest results of the recanvassing. "I’m someone who doesn’t like to look back. But would we have taken longer to make a decision on election night? Probably, if we knew it was only 3,000 votes making the difference."
Ryan, while acknowledging that Hoffman’s chances of pulling off a come-from-behind victory are still remote, said the campaign is looking at its legal options.
"We’re basically watching and waiting," Ryan said. "We’ve been looking very closely at the recanvass. We’re going to see how this week shapes up, and then we’re going to determine what to do."
Ryan said an important factor in the decision to concede was the unexpected -- and erroneous -- close vote in Oswego County, where polls had Hoffman with a double digit percentage point lead heading into Election Day.
"That’s the thing that threw us off," Ryan said.
Oswego County elections officials blame the mistakes on "chaos" in their call-in center that included a phone system foul-up and inspectors who read numbers incorrectly when phoning in results. Of 245 races in the county -- not including the congressional and court races -- 84 had incorrect totals reported election night.
In the congressional race, more votes were cast in Oswego County than any other in the 11-county district.
The district’s second biggest voter turnout was in Jefferson County, where Hoffman also has benefited from a turnaround since election night, gaining about 700 votes. Owens led Hoffman by 300 votes on the final election night tally. But after recanvassing, Hoffman now leads by 424 votes, 10,884 to 10,460.
Jerry Eaton, the Republican elections commissioner for Jefferson County, said inspectors found a problem in four districts where Hoffman’s vote total was mistakenly entered as zero.
"Hoffman definitely gained votes where he didn’t have them," Eaton said.
Jefferson County, home of Fort Drum and the Army's 10th Mountain Division, distributed 2,299 absentee ballots for the special election. As of this week, 1,303 had been returned but not counted, Eaton said. He said the county will begin counting the absentee ballots earyl next week.
Conklin, of the state Board of Elections, said officials did not have updated absentee ballot totals from the other counties.
When asked about the tightening race, Owens spokesman Jon Boughtin released a statement without directly addressing the election. "Since being elected, Congressman Owens has remained focused on the issues at hand: working with local leaders to address the Champlain Bridge closure, meeting with commanders at Fort Drum and continuing the work to strengthen Upstate New York," the statement said.
Ryan said the absentee ballots are likely to favor Hoffman because most were likely mailed before Republican Dede Scozzafava suspended her campaign three days before the election.
"For Doug to win, we needed a three-way race," Ryan said, adding that the campaign’s internal polls showed Hoffman would win with all three candidates.
"Given the majority of these ballots are from a three-way race, we think the ballots are going to break Doug’s way," Ryan said.
Ryan declined to say what percentage of the absentee vote the campaign believes Hoffman would need to win the race. Nevertheless, Hoffman’s campaign is optimistic.
"When people look back at this race, it was a remote possibility that Doug Hoffman would be a contender," Ryan said. "But miracles do happen.
Idiotic comments by incompetent campaign managers to the contrary notwithstanding.
But thanks for making the point in my original post. The FReepers who want us to sell out our principles for the sake of the Party for candidates like Scuzzy, who will vote reliably with Dems, will surely have a ready excuse if Hoffman wins.
And you do.
The only precedent doesn’t support this contention, actually.
Good Lord, no. The bottom of the recount scrum is where they cheat the most.
Good Lord, no. The bottom of the recount scrum is where they cheat the most.
“Conservatives always try to do the honorable thing - Democrats, the dishonorable thing.”
That’s because Democrats are scu&bags.
IMHO
Realistically, the whip-count was probably about 225. Hoffman’s vote didn’t matter. Pelosi had to decide what “conservative” Democrats needed an opt-out so they can claim they voted against it next November.
I don't know, maybe you swear them in and then...cuss them out.
As we post and read ballots are being created and stuffed in official ballot bags and stowed in the trunk of some Demo’s car so they can be “discovered” at the last minute to save the seat.
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There should be a federal audit involving a bi-partisan Congressional oversight and/or the DOJ of any and all irregularities like that.
Unfortunately we currently live under the Department of Injustice and with a massively unConstitutional Congress.
Hoffman supported universal health care, insuring everybody, laxer immigration laws, no “wall” to keep people out, earmarks, bailouts and faster stimulus spending.
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Is this in Hoffman’s campaign record and/or website?
Hoffman supported ... earmarks, bailouts and faster stimulus spending.”
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Wrong, wrong, and wrong..
http://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/issues.html#spending
What spending would you cut?
I would cut the pork and wasteful earmarks. When the Democrats took control of congress, they did so with the promise to end earmarks. Unfortunately, they not only did not end earmarks, they took them to a whole new level. I didn’t have to think twice. I signed the pledge to oppose pork barrel spending.”
Bill Owens: Refused to sign.
Dede Scozzafava: Refused to sign.
You are exactly correct! That is why I laugh when I hear our Ambassador to Afghanistan and Obama say they won’t help route the Taliban because of government corruption!!! Like we have room to talk.
My brother worked security for the elections in Iraq an American poll worker said the Iraqi elections were run better than ours.
10,200 absentee ballots were sent out. Far fewer than that will come back by the deadline(next Monday). To be optimistic, say 8000 come back. Hoffman would need to get about 72% of them to have a chance. Even then he could lose depending on how the remainder split between Owens and Scozzafava. Does he have a chance? Yes, but it is a mighty slim one, especially since unions and other Democrat groups are heavily promoting absentee voting to their flock.
Hoffman supported universal health care, insuring everybody,
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Wrong Mojave.
“Work to insure everyone” is broadly ambiguous, and doesn’t mean universal, nor insuring everyone.
I’m not saying, I’d have put it that way, nor that perhaps he can’t refine that more. But Hoffman’s position is simply not what you said.
http://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/issues.html#healthcare
Where do you stand on health care reform?
Although universal health care sounds great in theory, we can’t afford to do everything at once… especially when it means adding an additional trillion dollars to the deficit we are handing to our children and grandchildren. I believe our first step should be to bring the spiraling costs of healthcare under control so the cost of healthcare does not destroy the budgets of hardworking families and retirees. Then, as the economy picks up we can work to insure everyone.
Hoffman supported laxer immigration laws, no “wall” to keep people out,
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Hoffman is talking about legal immigration and then cracking down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
Again, I personally would prefer he just say crack down on illegal immigrants and I also support the wall, but he’s talking with a bunch of farmers up there - so I’m sure he’s got some reasoning for how he crafted that statement.
http://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/issues.html#immigration
Where do you stand on illegal immigration?
There is no question that our immigration policies are flawed. The answer, though, is not to put up a wall and stop all immigration. The answer is to create an easier path for immigrants to enter the United States – and to work here – while at the same time getting tough on illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
The election has not been certified, Owens should not have been sworn in. If Hoffman winds up the winner and the election is then certified Owens will have to step down, whether the dimwits like it or not.
Is it me, or do the two links below seem inconsistent? The Scorecard position issues don't seem to match positions with the "Doug Hoffman on the Issues" page:
https://www.doughoffmanforcongress.com/files/Scorecard.pdf"
http://doughoffmanforcongress.com/issues.html
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm............
3000 votes is still a LOT to make up in a Rep race...
2010 is a better chance.
If Hoffman was declared the winner and was certified as such by New York State, he would present his credentials to the House and formally contest the election. Under the Constitution, the House is the sole judge of the qualifications, elections and returns of its members, and would be able to exclude (not expel) Owens by a simple majority vote if they rule Hoffman to be the winner (as opposed to expulsion, which requires a 2/3 vote and does not have to be for reasons of constitutional qualifications or election results). It was fairly common practice in the 19th century for the House to seat someone that presented his credentials, and months later excluded him after a contest from the candidate that had been originally deemed to have lost.
But 3,000 votes is a lot of votes to make up, and I don’t think Hoffman can win if reports of only 10,000 or so absentees being outstanding are correct.
There were several candidate that went before the selection committee. Hoffman was dead last, with no votes from anybody on any of the ballots.
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For the GOP or for the CPONY?
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