Constituents of New York’s 22nd Congressional District will find themselves without representation in the House when the new Congress convenes in early January.
That’s due to another delay in ballot-counting in the neck-and-neck race between Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi and former Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican who lost the seat in 2018 after a single two-year term and is trying for a comeback.
But ballot-counting has been delayed again in Oneida County, reports syracuse.com, prolonging a courtroom battle lasting more than a month that has seen both candidates take the lead and fall behind.
State Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte said he is waiting to rule on disputed ballots until all of the counties’ vote counts are updated.
The race’s first tallies showed Tenney up by as much as 28,000 votes. But Brindisi steadily whittled away at that edge as more absentee ballots were counted.
Both parties have a lot riding on the outcome of the 22nd Congressional District clash. House Democrats lost seats in 2020, despite President-elect Joe Biden knocking President Trump from the White House. When the new Congress starts, Democrats will hold 222 seats to 212 for Republicans.
That makes for the narrowest House majority in two decades. And adding to House Democrats’ headaches, Biden has chosen three incumbents for administration posts. Their seats will be absent for a few months until special elections determine their successors, leaving Democrats with a razor-thin margin to pass legislation during the early months of the Biden administration.
Another tight race is likely to be reviewed by the House. In Iowa, Democrat Rita has said she would challenge her loss to Republican Marianette Miller-Meeks by six votes out of more than 394,000 cast. The House has ultimate authority and discretion on whom to seat, according to the Constitution, and a 1969 law aimed at clarifying its role.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested the New York race could be decided by the House when asked by the Washington Examiner. The last time the House chose a winner came in 1985, when Democrats, in the majority, chose Democratic incumbent Rep. Frank McCloskey over Republican challenger Rick McIntyre.
In New York’s 22nd Congressional District, stretching from the Pennsylvania state line north to Lake Ontario, Brindisi on election night, Brindisi lagged 28,422 votes behind Tenney, based on in-person ballots early voting, But Tenney’s massive lead evaporated to just 100 votes after nearly 60,000 mail-in ballots were tabulated.
The Tenney and Brindisi camps went to court to have a New York State Supreme Court judge rule on the challenges of over 2,000 absentee and affidavit ballots. Initially, Brindisi led by 13 votes. But after further ballots were found and reviewed, the narrow lead swung back to Tenney’s favor giving her a 12 vote lead.
On Dec. 8, Following the tabulation submissions from each county, Judge DelConte ordered eight county board of elections to canvass challenged ballots, correcting all canvassing errors, and, where errors could be corrected, to recanvass those ballots.
DelConte’s ruling ordered officials on each county board of elections to seek out any outstanding ballots, collect ballots seized by the court, correct prior recording errors of disputed ballots, and count “not properly canvassed” ballots.
