The House Administration Committee sent lawyers to observe the canvassing of challenged ballots in the uncalled New York 22nd Congressional District race, says former Rep. Claudia Tenney.
“What’s happening now is it’s so close that Nancy Pelosi, the current House speaker, has sent lawyers who are supposed to be from the House Administration. And they’re supposed to be in an observing role. Not anything more than that,” the Republican said during a Fox News interview on Sunday.
Almost two weeks ago, Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested the New York race could be decided by the House when asked by the Washington Examiner. The last time such an event happened was in 1985 when the lower chamber, controlled by a Democratic majority, decided a close Indiana House race between Democratic incumbent Rep. Frank McCloskey and Republican Steve McIntyre.
The Democratic incumbent initially won by just 72 votes but lost to his Republican challenger by margins of 34 and 418 votes, respectively, following two state recounts. Ultimately, Congress, after sponsoring a House recount, seated McCloskey.
“But it looks like they’re getting very aggressive. They’ve asked the court to have cameras and electronic equipment. So this thing could really work on these ballots in a way that we don’t think is fair, and that we think could prejudice the opening of these new ballots,” Tenney added.
Last Tuesday, New York Supreme Court Judge Scott DelConte rejected the Tenney campaign’s motion to certify the result, which showed her with a 12 vote lead over her Democratic opponent who defeated her in 2018 after one term, freshman Rep. Anthony Brindisi.
Brindisi did not announce he was filing a petition with the Committee challenging the result of the race. However, when asked by the Washington Examiner late last week if he would follow suit of Iowa Democratic congressional candidate Rita Hart, who did announce she would file a petition to the panel nearly two weeks ago after the Iowa state canvassing board certified her Republican opponent the winner by six votes, he said, “Well, I’m not going to speculate on what happens in the future. We have a long way to go. And 1000s of ballots still to count. And my position has been clear from the beginning. I want to see these ballots counted. I want the voices of the people to be heard.”
House Administration Committee Vice Chairman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, is expected to lead the panel that will review Hart’s petition.
While DelConte’s order to counties to canvass challenged ballots was a motion requested by the Brindisi camp, the judge also denied a motion by Brindisi’s lawyers to order the County Boards to produce electronic records from the canvassing software so a public hearing can be held where they “would correct, to the extent possible, specific deficiencies and errors within their original canvases.”
The judge ordered eight county boards of elections in New York’s 22nd Congressional District to canvass challenged ballots, correcting all canvassing errors, and, where errors cannot be corrected, to recanvass those ballots.
