It’s for presidential elections, not state or district-wide ones. Individual candidates can differ greatly from the head of their tickets on policy or other factors, which is why there is a democrat representing an R+17 (Utah 2nd), an R+18 (Texas 17th), and an R+19 (Idaho 1st). All three of those people hold substantial differences from BO on certain issues (well, at least they claim to) which is why they keep getting elected.

Kristen Gillebrand (the previous representative) for example, was rather socially conservative, which helped her in her campaigns.

Gillibrand’s Republican predecessor was something of a mess, and had a police report regarding a domestic violence call from his house released just before the election. So I don’t think you can draw much of a conclusion about the political leanings one way or another by the fact Gillibrand was a Dem.

nt

What I take from NY-20 is that we should have won big here. But that requires that they be a public groundswell of discontent with Washington and Obama. If we want to see the electoral gains of 94 that are going to be needed to slow down this express train to socialism, then the vast middle of electorate (and I DON’T mean moderates!) that doesn’t pay attention to elections needs to be energized to go vote.

Special elections are almost always governed by party faithful, so NY-20 looks to have an equal number of staunch Dems and GOP. The real problem is that the types that don’t pay attention are not connecting in their minds that economic pain is being brought on by the fiscal irresponsibility in DC. Or they think that the actions in DC are going to actually help, and are willing to give up liberty for a safety net.

Jonah Goldberg said something pretty profound a few months ago, “The voters need to learn that government can’t love them”. The voters in NY-20 that didn’t bother to turn out haven’t yet learned that lesson.

With all due respect to Moe Lane and the rest of the RedStaters, this is standard operating procedure in NYS.

NYS is home to 50% of all the election litigation in the USA because ot its arcane and confusing election laws. The result of all of this litigation is that, in every close election in NYS, the machines are impounded for a hand recount. The voting machines are glorified adding machines. In the recount, representatives of both candidates and parties appear at the place where the machines are impounded and stand behind the Bd of Election counters to verify the count. Sometimes in close elections, the machines were read incorrectly on election night and when recounted and checked, the totals sometimes change. Also as a result of the Election Law and litigation, there are standard rules for the verification of Absentee Ballots, how they are opened and how they are counted. So, in NY, this is standard procedure done by experts on both sides. There is no room for shenanigans. Any dispute over an Absentee Ballot is decided a ballot by ballot basis before they are opened.

If you want to determine who will win, find out where the people who cast Absentee Ballots lived, whether in Columbia County or another, determine the number of ballots in each county and then use the ratio for the winning candidate to determine how many more votes will be gained. For example, if Mr. Tedesco won Schenectady by 54% and there are 1000 absentee ballots, you can safely assume that Mr. Tedesco will get 540 to Mr. Murphy’s 460 for a surplus of 80 votes. Check it out. You’ll see it works.