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Date Posted: 16:30:21 04/02/09 Thu
Author: We all may be fools in the end
Subject: Re: The CD 20 outcome
In reply to: cynic 's message, "Re: The CD 20 outcome" on 16:24:42 04/02/09 Thu

>With only a 25 point lead and thousands of absentee
>ballots how can you predict any winner? Only a fool
>would gamble on that race.


Murphy-Tedisco gap narrows to 25 votes

By Valerie Bauman



The race to determine New York’s next U.S. representative grew tighter Wednesday as vote totals were amended and both candidates began laying legal groundwork for what could be a prolonged process ultimately decided by absentee ballots.

By early afternoon, Democrat Scott Murphy’s lead over Republican Jim Tedisco had shrunk to 25 votes, from 65 at the close of voting Tuesday night, according to an unofficial tally by The Associated Press. More than 154,000 votes were cast at machines in the 10-county 20th Congressional District.



The unofficial count was 77,217 for Murphy and 77,192 for Tedisco. The candidates waged a sharp-edged campaign on an accelerated schedule for the seat that Kirsten Gillibrand left when she was appointed to the U.S. Senate to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

More than 10,000 absentee ballots were issued, and overseas voters have until April 13 to return them by mail.

Both parties called the tight race a symbolic victory. Tedisco noted Democrats won the district in 2006 and 2008. Murphy points to a Republican advantage of 75,000 more registered voters than Democrats.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he’s confident the absentee ballots will give Tedisco a win. With eight of the 10 counties reporting a breakdown for absentee ballots by party, so far nearly 2,600 registered Republicans have returned ballots to their districts, compared with nearly 1,700 Democrats. Another 586 absentee ballots have come in from smaller parties. Those ballots haven’t been opened or counted yet.

“What we’ve done there is phenomenal,” Steele said Wednesday in New York City. “I mean, look, you’ve got (Sen.) Chuck Schumer, (former Sen.) Hillary Clinton, you had Obama — all of them win in that district. Everybody says, ‘Oh that’s a Republican district’ — well if it’s so Republican, how come Democrats are still winning there?”

“Today, well, last night, we showed that we can be competitive, that we can engage the voters with some new ideas, and we can possibly win this thing,” he said.

But both parties are preparing for a fight.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Democrats would wait for the canvassing to be completed — possibly next week — before deciding how to proceed.

“Obviously we have a whole lot of people on the ground who are monitoring things very closely to make sure all the votes are counted,” he said.

The race was widely viewed as the first electoral test of President Barack Obama’s popularity and his economic policy.

Some figures changed in Columbia/By John Mason

Wednesday’s change in the vote gap between Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco owed something to Columbia County. As election night closed out, Murphy was leading by 65 votes. But latest figures Wednesday were showing that split narrowed to 25 votes.

Half of the 40-vote change came from Columbia County.

In Hudson’s Fourth Ward, Murphy was shown beating Tedisco 97 to 20 Tuesday; on Wednesday that cliffhanger was reduced to 87 to 20.

Meanwhile, in Livingston’s first district, Tedisco picked up 10 votes to increase his Republican line vote total from 130 to 140.

County Democratic Election Commissioner Virginia Martin said the mistakes were transposition errors, from election workers copying down or hearing figures incorrectly.

“I don’t think that’s very unusual, but here we have a particularly close race,” she said. “The numbers on election night are unofficial; the recanvass numbers that go out [Thursday and Friday] are official.”

The correct figures, she said, should be ready by Friday morning.

Absentee ballots can’t be counted until a lawsuit brought by the state Republican chairman is heard April 6. Martin said her office hopes to begin counting the affidavits and absentee ballots April 7.

Columbia County gave Murphy 56 percent of the total, the most given by any county, a distinction shared with Washington and Warren counties, Murphy country.

According to unofficial figures calculated by the Register-Star, based on figures from the Board of Elections, Murphy won 14 municipalities in the county and Tedisco took five.

In Murphy’s column are Ancram: 181 to 123, Austerlitz: 347 to 159, Canaan: 342 to 175, Chatham: 802 to 486, Copake: 360 to 299, Gallatin: 164 to 135, Germantown: 290 to 251, Ghent: 728 to 537, Hillsdale: 303 to 147, Hudson: 740 to 309, Kinderhook: 1,354 to 1,095, New Lebanon: 310 to 205, Stuyvesant: 296 to 233 and Taghkanic: 169 to 131.

Tedisco came out on top in Claverack: 771 to 753, Clermont: 231 to 214, Greenport: 560 to 483, Livingston: 382 to 341 and Stockport: 331 to 272.

Martin called her first election as commissioner “exciting — kind of busy, everybody’s answering the phone, everybody’s getting numbers. We work like a team, just trying to get the numbers right.”

The new ballot-marking devices, which are specially designed to make voting more possible for disabled voters, had some wrinkles Tuesday, Martin said. At least half-a-dozen poll sites had problems getting them opened up and going she said.

Overall, however, she said, the election went smoothly. CNN was in town all day Tuesday, covering the election, setting up their cameras at the polling place at St. Mary’s Academy and also visiting local spots like Cascades at Warren and Fourth streets.

To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.

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