Politics & Government

Bishop Ahead but Results Hang on Absentee Ballots

Waiting until the last vote is counted could take weeks.

With the First Congressional District race separated by 3,461 votes out of more than 181,000, the race's outcome now hinges on absentee ballots and recounts. The winners may not be announced for weeks, at the earliest.

But Republican challenger Randy Altschuler will have to make up that deficit to take the seat of  Rep. Tim Bishop, who, with 51 percent of the vote, all but .

According to the Board of Elections, as of Wednesday, the following absentee ballots have yet to be counted:

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  • First Congressional District:
    • Democrat: 3,563
    • Republican: 3,889
    • Independence: 292
    • Conservative: 240
    • Working Families: 12
    • Blank: 1,753

The election board also reported that more than 3,600 ballots in the race have yet to arrive

Representatives at the board of elections said all absentee ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 1. Military ballots have until Nov. 24 to arrive at the BOE office.

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 Altschuler's camp met with an election lawyer on Wednesday morning to determine their next step.

"It's obvious this race is too close to call," said Rob Ryan, Altschuler's senior communication manager.

"The absentee ballots alone are a big chunk of votes," he said. "And when we're using these machines, there is still room for human error. While the machines themselves may be accurate, the humans who write them down don't always do that accurately."

Steven Losquadro, counsel for the Suffolk County Republican Committee, said a legal battle would be "speculative" as of now, though validity of voting machines and absentee ballots have been questioned in the courts before.

Bishop held a lead in the Congressional race all night, though his current tally of 50.96 percent of the vote is about as close to Altschuler's side as it was all night.

In a speech at the Islandia Mariott around 1:00 a.m, Bishop recognized that votes still need to be counted, though remained confident he would retain his seat for a fifth consecutive term.

"There are still some votes left to count," he said. "But I'd rather be where I am than where (Republican challenger Randy Altschuler) is.

"I remember eight years ago when I stood in this exact same spot," Bishop said. "I was probably up around 1,400 or 1,500 votes. We came away with about 2,200 I think."


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