OSWEGO, NY – A State Supreme Court Judge has put the counting of ballots in the race for the 22nd Congressional District on hold through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, meaning a winner will not be declared until next week at the earliest.
In Oswego County Supreme Court Tuesday, Justice Scott DelConte ordered an injunction stopping the review of ballots throughout the eight counties which comprise the district. The Tenney campaign asked for a delay, which the judge granted without objection from the Brindisi campaign.
Prior to the injunction, judicial review of some absentee and affidavit ballots in the 22nd District continued from Monday as the eight boards of elections took turns explaining what happened to votes which had been objected to by each of the campaigns during the ballot counting process.
Specifically, DelConte heard additional testimony Tuesday about affidavit ballots in Oneida County. Two individuals who served as observers during the canvassing of the race testified remotely. One was Rep. Anthony Brindisi's sister Eva Brindisi-Pearlman, who is also an attorney.
Attorneys asked the observers how they voiced objections to rejected affidavit ballots in this race. Pearlman said she simply wrote on the ballots that the Brindisi campaign objected to them, and was never told by the Board of Elections commissioners to do anything differently.
DelConte says any new motions need to be filed by the campaigns’ attorneys by 5:00 p.m. Monday, November 30. The State Board of Elections set a deadline of November 28 for county boards of elections to certify and transmit their election returns to the state – a deadline that will most likely not be met.
Former Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney currently leads incumbent Democrat Anthony Brindisi by just a few hundred votes as thousands of contested ballots remain to be officially counted.