Does your vote count? About 100 votes separate Tenney and Brindisi
High turnout meant some voters had to wait in line on election day. Above, in Sherburne a steady line of several dozen residents waited about a 45 minutes to cast their ballots at the American Legion. (Photos by Tyler Murphy)
CHENANGO COUNTY – According to early results the race for New York’s 22nd Congressional District is so close it may be decided by about 100 votes.
The Chenango County Board of Elections completed the counting of mailed-in ballots Thursday for New York’s 22nd Congressional District and according to preliminary results, with all eight counties reporting, former rep. Claudia Tenney currently leads Rep. Anthony Brindisi by just over a 100 votes out of roughly 310,000 total ballots cast.
Brindisi Campaign Spokesman Luke Jackson said Thursday that a clear winner was not yet decided.
Asked if there was enough ballots remaining or challenges to change the result, he replied, “That's the million dollar question.”
“The margin is so close and the margin of outstanding ballots is being determined, we should not be rushing to judgement,” he said.
“The Tenney campaign released a statement Wednesday, “Based on the final margin and nature of the canvassing process, Tenney’s lead is highly unlikely to change in the case of a recount. The court that is overseeing the process ordered that every Board of Elections hand count and then machine count before reconciling the vote totals which eliminates any significant errors in the final tabulation.”
The results means a major portion of the mail-in votes favored Brindisi, while votes on election day favored Tenney, causing a nail biting swing in the final results.
In Chenango County that trend was clearly visible with 10,420 in-person votes for Tenney and 5,958 for Brindisi.
Out of the Chenango County mail-in ballots Brindisi received 3,242 votes and Tenney received 1,428.
Of the total 262,433 votes on election day, district-wide, Tenney received 53.30 percent of the vote and Brindisi had 42.47 percent, according to the New York State Board of Elections.
That margin vanished once the approximate 55,000 mail-in votes had been counted and reduced to just a 100 ballot lead.
Wednesday Tenney told supporters, “Now that every vote has been counted, we have maintained the vote lead and are poised to come out victorious. This process has been long but it is critical that every legal vote be counted and accounted for. Now that it is done, I am confident that I will be certified the winner soon. I look forward to going to Washington to serve the all people of New York’s 22nd District in Congress and want to thank the voters for that privilege. I will always fight for and serve all the people of this district including those that did not support me.”
Both campaigns had representatives monitoring the vote counts and those officials challenged a number of votes. A judge will now listen to those challenges and determine which votes are kept and which ones are thrown out.
Republican Party Commissioner Mary Lou Monahan said the campaigns had challenged about 20 votes in Chenango County, that were then forwarded to the court for a final decision.
“NY-22’s election officials have been working day and night to count each and every vote, which is both hard and time consuming work. We owe these folks a debt of gratitude, and we thank them. As today’s numbers show, Congressman Brindisi continues to gain meaningful ground. With a margin this close, New York voters deserve to have their voices heard. Once every legal ballot is counted and certified, the people will decide who goes to Congress. The stakes are too high and the margin too close to rush to judgement,” said Jackson.
Tenney had previously represented the district from 2017 to 2019, and lost in the last election to Brindisi in another very close race.
The Chenango County Board of Elections completed the counting of mailed-in ballots Thursday for New York’s 22nd Congressional District and according to preliminary results, with all eight counties reporting, former rep. Claudia Tenney currently leads Rep. Anthony Brindisi by just over a 100 votes out of roughly 310,000 total ballots cast.
Brindisi Campaign Spokesman Luke Jackson said Thursday that a clear winner was not yet decided.
Asked if there was enough ballots remaining or challenges to change the result, he replied, “That's the million dollar question.”
“The margin is so close and the margin of outstanding ballots is being determined, we should not be rushing to judgement,” he said.
“The Tenney campaign released a statement Wednesday, “Based on the final margin and nature of the canvassing process, Tenney’s lead is highly unlikely to change in the case of a recount. The court that is overseeing the process ordered that every Board of Elections hand count and then machine count before reconciling the vote totals which eliminates any significant errors in the final tabulation.”
The results means a major portion of the mail-in votes favored Brindisi, while votes on election day favored Tenney, causing a nail biting swing in the final results.
In Chenango County that trend was clearly visible with 10,420 in-person votes for Tenney and 5,958 for Brindisi.
Out of the Chenango County mail-in ballots Brindisi received 3,242 votes and Tenney received 1,428.
Of the total 262,433 votes on election day, district-wide, Tenney received 53.30 percent of the vote and Brindisi had 42.47 percent, according to the New York State Board of Elections.
That margin vanished once the approximate 55,000 mail-in votes had been counted and reduced to just a 100 ballot lead.
Wednesday Tenney told supporters, “Now that every vote has been counted, we have maintained the vote lead and are poised to come out victorious. This process has been long but it is critical that every legal vote be counted and accounted for. Now that it is done, I am confident that I will be certified the winner soon. I look forward to going to Washington to serve the all people of New York’s 22nd District in Congress and want to thank the voters for that privilege. I will always fight for and serve all the people of this district including those that did not support me.”
Both campaigns had representatives monitoring the vote counts and those officials challenged a number of votes. A judge will now listen to those challenges and determine which votes are kept and which ones are thrown out.
Republican Party Commissioner Mary Lou Monahan said the campaigns had challenged about 20 votes in Chenango County, that were then forwarded to the court for a final decision.
“NY-22’s election officials have been working day and night to count each and every vote, which is both hard and time consuming work. We owe these folks a debt of gratitude, and we thank them. As today’s numbers show, Congressman Brindisi continues to gain meaningful ground. With a margin this close, New York voters deserve to have their voices heard. Once every legal ballot is counted and certified, the people will decide who goes to Congress. The stakes are too high and the margin too close to rush to judgement,” said Jackson.
Tenney had previously represented the district from 2017 to 2019, and lost in the last election to Brindisi in another very close race.
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks