Posted by
Defend America on Thursday, November 12, 2009 11:51:02 AM
Recanvassing shows NY-23 race tightens even as Rep. Bill Owens is sworn into House seat
November 12, 2009, 6:02AM
Washington -- Conservative Doug
Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week
after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down
5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and
he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County.
As it turns out, neither was true.
But Hoffman’s concession -- based on snafus in Oswego County and
elsewhere that left his vote undercounted -- set off a chain of events
that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage
of a historic health care reform bill.
Democratic Rep. Bill Owens was quickly sworn into office on
Friday, a day before the rare weekend vote in the House of
Representatives. His support sealed his party’s narrow victory on the
health care legislation.
Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead
has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according
to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.
In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500
votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors
found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes -- 12,748 to 11,000.
The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots,
of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin,
communications director for the state Board of Elections.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/its_not_over_recanvassing_shows_ny23_race.html