Two House Seats Are Still Up for Grabs After Election Tallies Show Races Decided By a Combined 18 Votes
Photo via Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Talk about every vote mattering. Two hotly-contested House seats are still up for grabs in races which might literally be decided by less than two dozen votes combined.
In the 22nd Congressional District of New York, the race between Claudia Tenney (R) and Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D) has had ongoing confusion over who is the winner. According to the first official general election tally from across the district, Tenney defeated Brindisi by just 12 votes.
The contest remains up in the air since the state Supreme Court is currently reviewing 2,500 absentee and provisional ballots that have come under dispute. Furthermore, WBNG reporter Josh Rosenblatt highlighted an announcement from the Chenango County attorney that says 55 early votes have been discovered that were not previously accounted for, which could flip the race by itself.
WOW: An attorney from Chenango County drops a bombshell with the court– 55 uncounted early votes were just found, having never been seen before.
In a congressional race separated by just 12 votes, these newly discovered early votes could make the difference #NY22 @WBNG12News pic.twitter.com/SVDwXo8tgL
— Josh Rosenblatt (@JRosenblattTV) December 1, 2020
Until the court figures out what to do with these ballots, however, Tenney is the frontrunner by the narrowest of margins.
In a separate but very similar contest in Iowa, Democratic House candidate Rita Hart is demanding a recount for the 2nd Congressional district after she was deemed lost to Republican Marionette Miller-Meeks by a mere six votes. Hart’s campaign manager, Zach Meunier, defended the recount by remarking that this is “the closest congressional race in recent history, and one of the very closest in the last hundred years.”
“Under Iowa law, this recount process was designed to count ballots that had already been tallied, meaning that additional legal ballots may have yet to be counted,” he said. “Over the next few days, we will outline our next steps in this process to ensure that all Iowans’ voices are heard.”
