A Supreme Court Judge is ordering all eight county Boards of Elections in the NY-22 Congressional District to fix their errors and continue counting ballots. If a county can not fix their errors, they must recanvass. 

That order came in a lengthy decision from Oswego County Supreme Court Judge Scott DelConte late Tuesday morning. 

In a tight race for the 22nd District Congressional Seat, current unofficial numbers have Republican Claudia Tenney up over Democrat incumbent Anthony Brindisi by just 12 votes. DelConte denied Tenney's request to certify the results, declaring her the winner. 

Tenney's proposed resolution would require that this Court ignore multiple errors by the Respondent Boards of Elections, disregard proper challenges to invalid ballots that were counted and valid ballots that were not counted by both parties, and ignore hundreds of ballots that were never canvassed in the first place. That is not the role of the Court. The winner of this election must be decided by the real parties in interest: the voters. And to do so, every valid vote must be counted.

- Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte, Dec. 8th written decision

 

DelConte also partially denied Democrat Anthony Brindisi's request, which the judge says called for continued counting in some counties, but not all. DelConte says errors must be corrected across the district, not just in some areas. 

DelConte began overseeing proceedings in the NY-22 race after both campaigns preemptively filed for judicial review of all challenged ballots. DelConte was meant to make rulings on challenged ballots during a court hearing on November 23rd, but errors made by Board of Elections across the district made it impossible for the court to proceed with the review. 

In his decision, Judge DelConte says seven out of the eight NY-22 counties failed to follow New York State election laws, which require objections to be written on the ballot itself in ink and initialed by Board of Elections commissioners. Some counties used sticky notes, some of which fell off ballots during transport to the courthouse. 

DelConte points out in his decision that there is no evidence of any sort of fraud, but that these mistakes, while they appeared minor at first, created some major issues. 

DelConte says errors in Oneida County make it impossible to know which challenged ballots were counted and which were not. He says there are also 400 challenged affidavit ballots that Oneida County Commissioners never ruled on and were not properly canvassed. 

In Madison County, DelConte says objections were again not notated directly on ballots and that commissioners gave him "an incomplete spreadsheet including only 123 of the challenged ballots." DelConte says the spreadsheet "was hastily created (either during or just before the Court's hearing), in an attempt to recreate the Tenney campaign's challenges and the Board's rulings upon them."

Then, there are the mislaid ballots in Chenango County, found in a drawer and never counted. 

In Cortland County, DelConte says around 100 ballots were rejected without ever being properly canvassed. 

DelConte notes in his decision that there is "absolutely no evidence or allegation" of fraud by either campaign or the Boards of Elections. 

Both campaigns responded to the judge's ruling. Their statements are below. 

Today’s decision affirmatively rejected Brindisi’s attempt to have only votes favorable to his campaign counted. It appears that this ruling will see to it that every legal vote is counted. If the proper legal procedures are followed, we are confident that we will prevail and Claudia will assume office as the Congresswoman for New York’s 22nd District.

- Sean Kennedy, Claudia Tenney Campaign Spokesperson

 

This decision is a win for the people of the 22nd District. As I’ve said all along, the voters of this community deserve to have their voices heard. This margin is too small and the stakes too high to rush to judgement. We owe it to voters, our democracy, and each other to let this process move forward without attacking each other, promoting conspiracy theories, or fanning the flames of division. As this process continues to play out, I hope everyone, including those who did not vote for me, and my opponent will do what is best for our country and protect the integrity of our election. I am hopeful that I will come out on top and be able to continue to work with both parties and stand up to anyone on behalf of all of New York's 22nd district.

- Anthony Brindisi (D), 22nd Congressional District Incumbent