BREAKING: Doug Hoffman un-concedes in NY-23!
Posted on November 16, 2009
We were all surprised that Doug Hoffman conceded so early in the NY-23 race on election night, but it looked like it was over. There were many, many mistakes as the night went on, with tons of ballot-counting glitches, and that’s not even mentioning that there are still thousands of military and overseas ballots to be counted. This leaves Doug Hoffman very much in the race, and possibly even the winner.
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.
Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday.
The state hasn’t certified the election yet, but Nancy Pelosi wasted no time swearing in Bill Owens. Owens then, of course, registered one more Democratic vote for Obama’s government run health care. If all the ballots are counted, and the result is changed, then Owens will have to be removed.
With all of this in mind, Doug Hoffman has un-conceded. His victory could still be a long shot, but with 10,000 ballots to be counted, it’s entirely possible that the result could be different. This could be huge for conservatives if Hoffman wins — and it should serve as a powerful lesson to never concede until every ballot is counted.
Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary, or follow her on Twitter!
» Filed Under Congress, Democrats, Elections, Nancy Pelosi, News, Republican, Voter/Election Fraud
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3 Responses to “BREAKING: Doug Hoffman un-concedes in NY-23!”
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Honestly I’m amazed he conceded as quickly as he did in the first place, although I understand he was probably trying to be the bigger man and a good sport, even in defeat.
I think I have 3,000 ballots in my trunk that I forgot to drop off. Election board is going to have to count them right?
As a person who has a lot of invlovement with absentee ballots Hoffman will most likely win. Most absentee’s are usually military people who are stations else where, with the remaining being dedicated voters. These people in most cases usually go for the Gop or Conservative candidate.