Oswego, NY – Republican Claudia Tenney will be certified as the winner of the 22nd district congressional race in New York, a judge ruled on Friday, ending a three-month trial in the only undecided contest in the country.
The decision represents the most definitive answer for anyone who won in an election saga with many twists and turns, although it is not yet over. Democrat Anthony Brindisi has promised to appeal in the state court and may try to challenge the election results in the House of Representatives itself.
Even after the state certifies Tenney as the winner, he will take action by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to elect her.
New Hartford’s Tenney leads Brindisi by 109 votes. She won 156,098 votes against Brindisi’s 155,989. Tenney’s margin equals a 0.035% advantage over his opponent.
State Supreme Court judge Scott DelConte ruled that counties and the state electoral commission should certify the election, rejecting the attempt by Democrat Anthony Brindisi, who held the seat until early January, to keep the election unofficial until your appeal to a higher court is completed.
In making a decision against Brindisi, DelConte argued that the Democrat did not provide sufficient evidence that Tenney’s certification would cause “irreparable harm” as he still had a remedy at the federal level.
It is unclear when Brindisi’s appeal will begin. His lawyers announced Friday morning that they will appeal DelConte’s rejection of several hundred ballots that Brindisi wanted to be counted.
In his decision, DelConte criticized local electoral councils for what he said were “systemic violations of state and federal electoral law” that affected both candidates. In particular, he highlighted the failure of Oneida County to process more than 2,400 requests from voters who registered with the DMV, which prevented them from voting on election day.
But it is not the role of the court to fix these errors in this case, he said. That depends on the state electoral council, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the United States Department of Justice.
The judge also took the opportunity to dispel the rumors that circulate around the legal procedures regarding the integrity of the election. Although there were mistakes, he writes, there was no fraud. No dead people voted. There were no discrepancies at the electronic voting machines, he said.
“Every valid vote cast in the 22nd Congressional District of New York has been counted and counted,” he wrote.
The state election board will try to certify Tenney as soon as possible, said Kimberly Galvin, one of the council’s lawyers, by e-mail on Friday.
The state council has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday for certification, but they are trying to anticipate it, she said.
Even if the council cannot schedule a meeting before Wednesday, officials can contact the House of Representatives secretary and inform the secretary that eight counties that make up the district have certified their results, said Galvin.
However, it is still not entirely clear when Tenney will sit in Congress, Galvin said, especially considering the pending appeal.
“The House of Representatives controls its own members. We don’t know how quickly they will act, or even if they will act, with pending resources, ”she said. “This is up to them.”
A spokesman for the Chamber’s Management Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Please contact reporter Patrick Lohmann at [email protected] or (315) 766-6670, and follow more updates from # NY22 on Twitter: @PatLohmann.
More about the 22nd race in NY:
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Judge delays 22nd race in NY another week after Brindisi’s last minute effort
On NY 22, judges suggest that there are no big options for correcting Oneida County’s mistake
What’s next for the Brindisi-Tenney House race? Resources, recount, can delay the decision for months
700 votes were cast in Oneida County. Officials ignored state law in the latest mess
Oneida County failed to register 2,400 voters, preventing their votes in the Brindisi-Tenney dispute