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N.Y. State Senate Race Drags on in Court
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered Feb 05, 2005 06:44pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News: Iran |
| News Date | Saturday, February 5, 2005 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | At one point, a Republican lawyer tried a little voodoo, shaking a string of beads over a pile of ballots that were about to be opened. It seemed to help, although one vote for Spano was disqualified because the voter had written "I'm a lifelong Republican" across the ballot and signed his name, violating the rule that says votes must be anonymous.
The contest remained tight as small groups of ballots were ruled eligible. Toward the end, it seemed clear that the more ballots that were opened, the better it would be for Stewart-Cousins.
Of the 127,000 votes cast, Spano's lead was 58 when the judge ruled on all the remaining ballots, finding that just 170 more should be counted — those cast by people who went to the right polling place but the wrong election district table. The lawyers called that category "right church, wrong pew."
Both sides appealed; Democrats wanted more ballots ruled eligible, the Republicans fought the 170.
It took a four-judge appeals court a month to decide that just 45 ballots should be counted — those cast by poll workers who used absentee ballots.
That would have assured Spano's re-election, but both sides appealed again, to the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals. Those judges ruled Wednesday, 5-2, that 228 ballots could be counted — the poll workers and the "right church, wrong pew" voters.
It appeared the ruling gave Stewart-Cousins a good chance to win.
"Every court, you get a different decision," Spano said. "The ups and downs are taking a toll, I tell you." |
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