The fight to represent New York’s 22nd Congressional District picked back up on Monday in court between Democratic incumbent Rep. Anthony Brindisi and Republican challenger Claudia Tenney.
Counties counted over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, which gave Tenney a 29 vote lead. But that could change since 2,500 ballots still need their day in court.
Vote tallies do not matter because State Supreme Court Judge Scott DelConte will rule which ballots will count two months after the election.
DelConte went through each pile ballot by ballot, which is honestly the only way to do this.
DelConte is as frustrated as he was in December. Brindisi’s lawyer tried to convince DelConte to count ballots cast at the wrong place.
This situation brings up the “wrong church, wrong pew” idea. A 2019 law allows officials “to still count ballots cast in the wrong voting district as long as the person voted at the correct polling site.” For example, a person shows “up to a polling place that is hosting more than one voting district covering several lower-level races” and they get in the wrong line.
Brindisi says that qualifies as “right church, wrong pew.”
Brindisi’s attorneys said that “the failure of those poll workers to inform voters they were in the wrong place should not be enough to disenfranchise them.”
Tenney’s attorneys said “it is too heavy a burden on poll workers to ensure every voter is in the right spot” and the voter should make sure they are in the right line.
How are some of these ballots contested? I mean, don’t these unanswered questions make the ballot invalid?
The ballots look like they could have an episode on Forensic Files because the lawyers nitpicked at signatures.
I told you DelConte is not in the mood to deal with anything. DelConte will also bring the truth.
Brindisi’s lawyer proposed a timeline, which extends the battle for another week.
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