Altschuler scores 20 votes from military ballots

Congressional hopeful Randy Altschuler picked up 20 votes today as 71 military ballots were counted in the tight race between the GOP’s Mr. Altschuler and incumbent Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop, a spokesman for Mr. Altschuler said Tuesday afternoon.

At about 3:30 p.m., Board of Elections workers were still preparing to count about 160 additional paper ballots that for various reasons were not figured into the electronic tallies on Election Day, said the spokesman, Rob Ryan.

Meanwhile, both sides met in state Supreme Court in Riverhead for what was described by Mr. Ryan as an hour-long informational session with a judge whose ruling could ultimately decide the nation’s last undecided race for Congress.

Mr. Altschuler, a St. James businessman, watched his post-Election Day lead of almost 400 votes dissolve after the counting of absentee and affidavit ballots began soon after, with Mr. Bishop taking the lead by 235 votes when the counting of the 11,500 such ballots cast in 1st District race was completed last Tuesday afternoon.

With the military ballots counted, that lead was trimmed to 214. In the end, the race will likely be decided by 2050 disputed ballots — the GOP has contested 1,260 votes while the Democratic camp has contested 790.

“The election commissioners have to go through the challenges. If they don’t come to a resolution then it goes to the judge,” said Mr. Ryan, noting that the court, unlike the Board of Elections, can issue subpoenas as a way of proving a voter’s residency.

Overall, Mr. Bishop is ahead by 97,049 to 96,835 votes, campaign officials said.

Both sides were expected to concede about 100 disputed votes each sometime Tuesday afternoon, as well.