As Jimmy Vielkind points out, the challenged ballots just in Saratoga County are "way more than enough to swing the election" in the 20th Congressional District. That could be a problem for Jim Tedisco if, as seems to be the case, his campaign has challenged more ballots that the Scott Murphy campaign, and if (as is likely) many of those challenges are rejected in court. (That's what the commenter Hudson on my preceding post, "News from the vault," expects to happen.) Of course, some of the likely rejected challenges will benefit Tedisco, as in this case I witnessed today (i.e. Tuesday afternoon) at the Saratoga County Board of Elections. Tedisco lawyer James Walsh, who hadn't been there the day before, came over to consult with his colleague Bob Farley, who had been there both yesterday and today (and on preceding days, and is scheduled to be there again Wednesday morning. No doubt he'd contributed his share to the adjacent trash barrel nearly full of water bottles, Dunkin' Donuts coffee cups and the like). Walsh had an overvote, of someone who had marked the ballot to vote for Tedisco twice on both the Republican and Conservative lines. So, Walsh said, we count that as one vote, right? But Farley and Murphy lawyer Jeff Pearlman, who had been sitting next to Farley both today and yesterday, both said no, because they had each been objecting to overvotes, putting the ballots in a pile to be reviewed by state Supreme Court in Dutchess County. And it seems likely that the court will ultimately rule that those votes should be counted as Walsh had suggested. But that Tedisco ballot he'd wanted counted today went instead into the challenge pile.
Republicans had challenged the residency of some Skidmore students, and then the Democrats challenged a student ballot. "I thought you weren't objecting to college students," Walsh said. One of the Democratic team (a guy who neglected to give me his last name when I introduced myself to him yesterday) said: "She is a college student but that's not why we're objecting to her." It was, Farley told me, "an adversary proceeding," with each side looking for reasons to object to the other side's voters.
It looks like the Republicans are going to need that 15-day extension for overseas military ballots, which means they need an effective political strategy (after running a highly ineffective campaign) to put pressure on the Obama administration, with the ideal point man being John McCain.
Looks like one of the ballots challenged by Tedisco's people was that of Gillibrand herself.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=790125
Posted by: Brian | April 15, 2009 at 12:20 AM