Democrat Bill Owens was sworn in by Nancy Pelosi and helped her pass the health care bill with his vote, but the votes that really count, haven't all been counted.
Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman conceded the election after being told that he had lost by a narrow margin and Owens was quickly sworn in. But now, with 10,200 oversees and military ballots still not counted a re-canvass has substantially reduced the margin of victory originally thought to have been won by Owens.
According to a report in Syracuse.com, the latest unofficial count puts Owens up by only 3,026 votes. Because Hoffman conceded that means the election is not contested. However, if the absentee ballots give him a victory, what will happen?
"I don’t know if we would have conceded on election night," Rob Ryan, Hoffman’s campaign spokesman, said Wednesday while discussing the latest results of the recanvassing. "I’m someone who doesn’t like to look back. But would we have taken longer to make a decision on election night? Probably, if we knew it was only 3,000 votes making the difference."
Ryan, while acknowledging that Hoffman’s chances of pulling off a come-from-behind victory are still remote, said the campaign is looking at its legal options.
"We’re basically watching and waiting," Ryan said. "We’ve been looking very closely at the recanvass. We’re going to see how this week shapes up, and then we’re going to determine what to do."
Before Owens was sworn in Friday, Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat who won a special election in California, was sworn in Thursday. The two gave Pelosi the votes she needed to reach a majority of 218 and pass the historic health care reform legislation in the House. [Syracuse.com]
After another day of counting absentee ballots, Owens lead grew to 3,000 votes.
Time to re-issue that concession statement!
Posted by: Redman | November 17, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Owens preemptively contested the election on November 2. The latest count now has Owens ahead by just 1,748 out of over 140,000 votes.
See:
Owens in office illegally? (Gouverneur Times)
Watertown Times notes that Hoffman can still win the vote count. (Watertown Times)
Posted by: Matthew Weaver | November 13, 2009 at 10:05 PM
Good question!
Why doesn't the GOP drop another Million dollars in the race?
Look how long it took for Coleman to win in MN. :)
Posted by: Redman | November 13, 2009 at 02:03 PM