Here’s some of the latest news from the still up in the air NY-20 special election:
⢠The latest numbers from the state show Democratic candidate Scott Murphy leading Republican Jim Tedisco by 56 votes, up from yesterday’s margin of 25 votes, as more absentees start coming in from the pro-Murphy areas of Columbia County and Warren County.
⢠And speaking of those counties, they have been some of the prime areas where the Tedisco campaign has been keeping absentees ballots out of the count, by challenging the eligibility of voters who maintain multiple homes. A Murphy representative has also alleged that the Tedisco campaign is targeting voters for not just being registered Democrats, but on ethnicity: “Cohen, Pollack, Rosegarten, Winakor — there’s a pattern: they’re Democrats and they’re Jewish.”
⢠Also, the Tedisco camp has now begun challenging ballots cast by students at local Skidmore College. The Tedisco camp has commented in the press that the goal here is to prevent fraud — to make sure that only people who live in the district are voting for its representative.
⢠On top of that, we’re also waiting on more absentees to come in from some of these counties, and none have come in at all yet from the Tedisco stronghold of Saratoga or the Murphy stronghold of Washington.
⢠Plus we have the military and overseas ballots, which haven’t been counted yet, and for which the Tedisco camp is requesting more time for what was already an extended deadline for ballots to arrive in the mail. It has been pointed out that the letter is addressed to “Erik Holder.”
The biggest thing we’re really all waiting on here is for the judge presiding over the case, James V. Brands, to rule on these legal questions. Brands was set to hear arguments yesterday and possibly rule that day, but he was hospitalized and is expected to be back in court tomorrow. Depending on the degree to which he upholds or overrules challenges, Murphy could benefit by a potentially decisive amount.
So really, we’re hardly done yet at all.
