Democrat Wins Procedural Ruling in Contested New York State Senate Election

On January 9, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, unanimously ruled in favor of Democratic nominee Cecilia F. Tkaczyk, in the election contest over who won the election for State Senate, 46th district, a district near Albany.

The Republican nominee, George A. Amedore, won the race by 37 votes, but 99 votes were never counted because of procedural errors made by local election officials. The January 9 court ruling said the 99 uncounted votes should be counted. It is still somewhat statistically unlikely that counting 99 more votes will erase a margin of 37 votes, of course. See this story. Both the Republican Judges and the Democratic Judges ruled in favor of counting the disputed ballots.

The original returns, by party, are: Democratic 55,408, Working Families 5,809, Green 1,387. All these votes were cast for Tkaczyk. Votes for Amedore came from these party lines: Republican 51,273, Conservative 8,274, Independence 3,594. It is very rare for the Green Party to ever cross-endorse a major party nominee, but in this case the Green Party did cross-endorse the Democrat.


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Democrat Wins Procedural Ruling in Contested New York State Senate Election — No Comments

  1. 53 of these ballots are those of Ulster County Election Inspectors whose votes were challenged by the Republican candidates’ lawyers. There is a two week window before Election Day for Inspectors (who will probably be posted away from their home districts and so couldn’t vote otherwise) to cast their special paper ballots. The two fools who act as Election Commissioners in Ulster County permitted and even encouraged these inspectors to vote before the two week period began. Just as many Republican Election Inspectors probably voted that way but their ballots weren’t challenged in nearly the same numbers. These 53 ballots will in all likelihood change the outcome.

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