Jim Tedisco, the GOP nominee in the disputed NY-20 special election, has just won a legal victory for now, with Judge James V. Brands reversing himself on a major ruling from last week, which had appeared to stop Tedisco in his tracks in his efforts to challenge absentee votes for Democrat Scott Murphy. But he still has a lot of work to do in overcoming Murphy’s current 273-vote lead.
Brands had ruled last week that Tedisco and the GOP were not entitled to copies of the original absentee-ballot applications. Brands has now agreed with the Tedisco camp’s arguments that the legal precedents he cited didn’t truly apply here, and that the law does entitle Tedisco to those absentee applications.
Tedisco’s camp has challenged a large number of unopened absentee envelopes that are presumably votes for Murphy, saying that these individuals are not genuine residents of the district or are otherwise ineligible. And those applications are key evidence, needed to even begin winning a challenge.
However, Brands also declined to issue a blanket ruling on what constitutes residency for voting purposes — indeed, there is an acknowledgement that the issuing of a ballot by the local officials itself provides a presumption of regularity. As such, Tedisco will now have the ability to argue against counting ballots, but will have to do so on a case-by-case basis.
