ALBANY—The most up-to-date figures we can muster in the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in Congress now has Democrat Scott Murphy leading by 83 votes over Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, state and county elections officials said. This is updated from our previous post, which was based on the most recent official compilation from the state Board of Elections.
The tally is 77,017 for Murphy and 76,934 for Tedisco.
This number does not include any paper ballots, nor does it include recanvasses of voting machines in Greene and Essex counties. It does, however, contain the recanvass numbers for Washington and Saratoga counties. The Board of Elections posted this tally which did not include the updated numbers from Washington County, which a commissioner told me by phone.
Meanwhile, Judge James Brands ruled that Essex and Greene counties should move ahead with their machine recanvass within twenty-four hours.
Brands heard arguments form both camps today, and ruled that the counting of absentee ballots not sent by overseas and military voters should commence on Wednesday, siding with the Democrats.
"While this court agrees with counsel that there should be no rush in this process to the detriment of a fair and accurate account," Brands wrote, "it occurs to this court that both the candidates and the constituency they serve are entitled to a prompt resolution of this contested election which apparently is in a deadlock with each candidate having the same number of votes."
"The whole premise of the consent decree was to ensure that those abroad who want to exercise their right to vote are not disenfranchised by an artificially short turn around time with their ballots. In order to have the votes counted in an orderly fashion, it would make sense that the canvassing of those absentee ballots other than those particularly identified should commence on April 8, 2009 rather than sit in storage for another six days."
