Did Doug Hoffman concede too early?
You’ll remember on election night a few weeks ago, upstate New York was reporting all sorts of ballot-counting glitches even as NY-23 conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded the race.
Now, the Syracuse Post-Standard reports that the race has tightened considerably — with thousands of military and overseas ballots still to be counted:
Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County.
As it turns out, neither was true.
But Hoffman’s concession — based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted — set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill.
Democratic Rep. Bill Owens was quickly sworn into office on Friday, a day before the rare weekend vote in the House of Representatives. His support sealed his party’s narrow victory on the health care legislation.
Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.
In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes — 12,748 to 11,000.
The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections.
Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday.
The state has yet to certify the election. Meantime, Speaker Pelosi hastily swore in Democrat Bill Owens, who hastily voted for the House government health care takeover bill last week, which barely squeaked through.
Conklin said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election. But the letter noted that Owens still led by about 3,000 votes, and that the special election was not contested — two factors that legally allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to swear in Owens on Friday.
“We sent a letter to the clerk laying out the totals,” Conklin said. “The key is that Hoffman conceded, which means the race is not contested. However, all ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to be removed.”
Before Owens was sworn in Friday, Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat who won a special election in California, was sworn in Thursday. The two gave Pelosi the votes she needed to reach a majority of 218 and pass the historic health care reform legislation in the House.
The bill passed 220-215 late Saturday with the support of only one Republican. The Republican, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana, said he voted for the legislation only after seeing that Democrats had the 218 votes needed for passage.
As Jim Geraghty notes, it “would be really tough to make up a 3,000 vote margin in a three-way race among 10,000 absentee ballots.”
We’ll see shortly.
In the meantime, let it be a lesson to conservative challengers not to concede until the last ballot is counted.
The nation’s health may depend on it.
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Categories: NY-23
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Take out Owens and the traitor and you still have 218, unless there’s someone else involved.
Still, a late win for Hoffman, or even a much closed margin, means some pretty incredible things for the Tea Party movement.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Don’t you mean tea-bagger movement? /sarc
I want to know who told him that he had no chance and should conceed? Who fed him the false info, and what party are they registered as belonging to?
Well, I sure hope Owens doesn’t get snippy about it!
Agree, Hoffman got some bad advice to conceed on election night. Did they not pay attention to MN’s senate race last year?
Gingrich just threw up a little in his throat.
This really had very little to do with the outcome of the health care vote.
Pelosi told enough Dems they could vote against it (to supposedly save themselves) yet she could still have it pass.
Without Owens, she would have released one fewer Democrat – or more likely, twisted one more arm. (It’s kind of like on Jeopardy, where the victory is almost always by $1.)
Nope hahaha
I still keep some tea bags around so I can make a statement, though.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Whether he wins or not, I’m thrilled about this turn of events. Maybe it will kind of shut up these talking heads that had to continually toss insults at the conservatives for “splitting” the Republican party.
I say keep our fingers crossed for Hoffman, and lets go for it conservatives!!!
I do not believe that his “concession” has any lawful import. If he wins when the ballots are counted, he has the right to be the sitting Congressman.
Can anyone show any evidence of any of these election snafus ever causing a Democrat to think they should concede or to have lost a race? When are we going to wake up and smell the corruption?
I read at Syracuse.com this morning that Hoffman could be certified and seated. Is this true under NY state law? Does NY law supercede the Congress and their perceived right to seat members? Could there be a legal challenge to Pelosi-care?
According to the article:
On November 12th, 2009 at 9:15 pm, travlinman said:
That is the key.
We MUST start working NOW to ensure that the 2010 elections are run honestly and that corruption is prevented. ACORN must be removed from the picture. Stop same-day registration and voting. Stop early voting and the practice of “vote early and vote often”. Ensure that only U.S. Citizens are allowed to vote, by requiring voters to show the same documentation required by an Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification to start a new job.
To: ITookThe Red Pill 12:20 pm
I agree! The importance of starting to work NOW to ensure honest elections in 2010, cannot be overstated!
Demanding a recount in NY-23 would be a good way to expose any potential sources of corruption that may exist in that district.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant!
Better a tea bagger movement than a communist movement on the other side. I want to hear all those liberals scream when they got to give everything up to their messiah. Open thy wallet and they opened freely and gave all of their wealth and belongings to their messiah.