Posted on 11/12/2009 3:23:05 PM PST by STARWISE
A recanvassing of votes cast in the highly contested NY-23 race shows that the 5,335-vote lead once enjoyed by Rep.-for-now Bill Owens, the Democrat, has narrowed to about 3,000 with another 10,000 absentee ballot uncounted.
Owens, who was sworn in last week, was one of 220 Dems to vote give the majority a narrow victory on health care reform.
UPDATE: Josh Kraushaar, who has been following this closely, says Conservative Party boss Mike Long thinks Owens is going to win at the end of the day -- because only about 5,400 absentees have been returned.
The Syracuse Post-Standard:
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.
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Any chance Hoffman will be able to ask fora recount ??
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Scuzzafava should be the new term for a nauseating rotten fish.
"Hey, you smell that scuzzafava in the alley...?"
Hoffman conceded. There will not be a recount. He was stupid to concede as quickly as he did.
Conceding means nothing. The question is when does the law provide for asking for a recount. That would most likely be when the official count is certified. It sounds from the article like that has not happened yet.
Exactly, the official count has not been certified yet and won’t be until all absentee ballots are counted. All Hoffman did was concede on election night totals but that concession is meaningless if the acutal count shows he won.
It’s still a long shot. If there are 10,000 ballots and Hoffman needs to pick up 3,000 votes he needs 6,500 to Owen’s 3,500. That’s a 30% difference.
Maybe Pelosi knew about this and that’s why she gave herself a couple extra votes in favor of the health care bill.
New York Board of Elections stated today that the election has not be certified and if Hoffman pulls ahead with absentee ballots are counted, Owens will be removed.
In most states, if the margin is very narrow there is an automatic recount at the state’s expense. If the margin is outside of that number the candidate can request a recount at the candidate’s expense. I believe the request for recount can be made within days of when the results are certified.
As someone posted on another thread about this the House determines its members. The House could refuse to accept Hoffman, certified or not. And I am not sure how NY state would or could remove Owens.
Have they counted the mystery ballots that run 100% DNC?
Pray for America’s Freedom
Algore conceeded. Then flipped and took it back. Do-overs are OK by me.
Sure they could, but is that a fight they want to take up? If New York certifies the election results and states Hoffman is the winner, I think the House would be compelled to recognize Owens. If not, Owens would get his clock cleaned in 2010.
Yes, they said that.
But I’m not sure that a state has any authority to remove a sitting member of congress. I think that they would have to petition congress to have the member removed.
Now, I would expect Owens would just resign if it turned out he had lost the election. But I don’t think he can be removed without a vote of the house.
Congress makes it’s own rules about membership. So if a majority wants to vote that a person can be seated before the count is completed, they can do that.
I would note that it appears the Republicans said nothing about this — they allowed two democrats to be seated without official certification.
Okay, maybe I'm dense, but when I vote, they tabulate how many people have voted. At the end of the night, if the number of people voted did not equal the number of ballots cast, wouldn't you try to figure out what was the discrepancy right then and there? "Oh, well, were missing 2,000 ballots, Mildred, let's just send the results along anyway." It's inconceivable to me how these problems keep cropping up unless you factor corruption into the mix.
I tend to agree with you, but then this House leadership does really stupid things all the time. I agree that not allowing the elected Congressman to have the seat would hurt them further.
BTW, with only 5,400 absentee ballots so far and a 3,026 deficit, Hoffman would need to win very lightly more than 87% of the ballots. So this sound moot unless another mistake in Hoffman’s favor is found.
If Owen was sworn in that tells me its final.
The article says 5400 ballots were returned.
So using 3rd grade math (Well when I was a kid it was 3rd grade math. Now it’s senior in high school math).
Owens lead was cut to about 3000 votes. So Hoffman has to win 3000/5400, which means Hoffman has to win about 56-57 percent of the uncounted absentee ballots to win. Not that difficult a task, expect for the fact that Scozzafava is also going to take a number of those remaining votes. If she wasn’t on the ballot, then I’d say Hoffman had a decent chance of pulling it out.
I don’t think the Dems care what the recount says. They’ve been known to seat reps who lost in close cases and they’ve already seated Owens. About the only thing it does to help is cause a PR problem for the Dems.
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