Congressman Anthony Brindisi, D-22, and his Republican challenger, Claudia Tenney, have both officially voted in this year’s election.
Brindisi cast his ballot at the Mohawk Valley Community College Jorgensen Center last week during early voting.
Tenney voted on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at the St. George Orthodox Church in her hometown of New Hartford.
Tenney says this year is reminiscent of 2016.
“This just feels more like 2016. I think the energy, obviously having a presidential race brings out many more voters than a midterm year. I think a lot has happened since 2016 -- 2016 was a bellwether year, 2018 was a tough year, the economy hadn't been kickstarted. Also, we had the Mueller report hanging over the head of Republicans,” she said. “Now that it turns around, it looks like a very different story this time – I think people are energized.”
Brindisi says he expects this to be a close race, as it was in 2018. During that election, Brindisi won by just under 2,500 votes in the 22nd Congressional District.
With just under 2% separating the two candidates, the race was too close to call for several weeks.
"I think it's going to be a very close race. I encourage everyone to get out to vote today. Polls close at 9 p.m. tonight,” said Brindisi. There's still a number of absentee ballots that are out there, so it’ll be a close race as it was two years ago, and if you remember last time we were near Thanksgiving when we finally knew the outcome of the race, so we want the voters to be heard, and we want to make sure all the lawful absentee ballots are counted.”
The deadline to return absentee ballots by mail in New York is Nov. 10.
