The decision comes after months of disputes over vote counting and places Tenney, who represented the district from 2017 to 2019, 109 votes ahead of Democrat Anthony Brindisi, who defeated Tenney in 2018.
“The State Council will certify the results as instructed” by Judge John Conklin, director of public information for the New York State Electoral Council, told CNN on Friday. “This could be as early as Monday.”
Tenney claimed victory. “I am honored to have won this race,” she said in a statement posted on Twitter. “It was a hotly contested campaign and I thank Anthony Brindisi for his service. Now that all the legal votes have been counted, it is time for the results to be certified.”
Brindisi said in a statement that he was “shocked and surprised” by the decision, and called for “a full audit and manual recount”.
Higher courts could still review the counts and Brindisi could challenge the election in the House of Representatives. In the statement, his campaign said Brindisi “remains committed to ensuring an accurate result in the competition”.
State Supreme Court judge Scott DelConte ruled that these avenues mean that certification of the election would not cause “irreparable harm” to Brindisi, because the House “is the final judge of its members’ elections.
DelConte held the county’s electoral councils responsible for the way they handled the election, but defended the integrity of the final process.
“As a result of this special procedure, every valid vote that was cast in New York’s 22nd Congressional District was counted and counted,” wrote DelConte.
The dispute is one of the two main House elections that have been disputed since the November election. Iowa Republican MP Mariannette Miller-Meeks was elected after winning her election against Democrat Rita Hart by six votes. Hart asked the House Management Committee to count at least 22 other votes.