Vote-counting in the final unsettled House race of 2022 has been delayed, again, by a coronavirus case at a central New York elections office.
In New York’s 22nd Congressional District, former Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican ousted in 2018, leads Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi by 12 votes out of hundreds of thousands cast, according to unofficial results through Monday.
But a COVID-19 case at the Oneida Board of Elections center is delaying further counting.
Brindisi was behind Tenney by 28,422 votes based on in-person ballots received during early voting and on Election Day, but almost 60,000 mail-in ballots were also cast. This cut into Tenney’s lead and brought her down to just a 100-vote margin lead. Brindisi decided to challenge the ballots in court, bringing him ahead 13 votes at one point, but he fell behind by 12 votes later.
According to a letter sent from the Oneida County Department of Law to New York Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte, an employee at the Oneida County Board of Elections learned of his or her COVID-19-positive diagnosis on Sunday after taking a coronavirus test on Thursday.
The employee, however, worked on Friday and potentially infected fellow staffers at the office.
Oneida is one of eight counties in the sprawling House district, along with Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Madison, Oswego and Tioga. In each county, the boards of elections have not certified a winner.
On Friday, the Tenney campaign accused the Brindisi camp of placing Board of Election employees in the district in danger for insisting countywide employees review all the ballots after a Madison County employee came down with COVID-19.
“It is unfortunate that Anthony Brindisi is seeking to put elections staff at risk by packing people into cramped indoor spaces to further his electoral prospects after spending the entire campaign season on his coronavirus high horse — refusing to do ‘dangerous’ public events or greet voters in-person,” Tenney campaign spokesman Sean Kennedy told the Washington Examiner. “Now that it suits his ambitions, Brindisi is cavalier about the risk of COVID. Hypocrisy much?”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Friday that if the race could not be finalized in the court, it may be settled by the House, like Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District contest. Iowa Democrat Rita Hart, who lost the race by six votes after the state canvassing board certified the results, announced last week she plans on petitioning the House instead of going to court to contest the race.
Both seats are important for Democrats. If they lose both, they will hold a narrow 222-213 House majority.
