Bishop Leads Altschuler After Absentee Ballots Counted

UPDATE: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 4:45 P.M.

When election workers finished counting outstanding ballots on Tuesday afternoon, Democratic U.S. Representative Tim Bishop of Southampton led his challenger, Republican Randy Altschuler of St. James, by 235 votes, according to Jon Schneider, a spokesman for Mr. Bishop—but a court still needs to decide the fate of scores of contested ballots.

Representatives of Mr. Altschuler’s campaign could not be reached after the counting wrapped up on Tuesday. When asked if Mr. Altschuler, a Republican, was considering conceding the race on Tuesday morning, his spokesman, Rob Ryan, said: “We’re going to just analyze the returns as they come in this afternoon, and at the appropriate time make an informed decision.”

The Suffolk County Board of Elections was not prepared to release an official count on Tuesday afternoon, according to Ivan Young, the assistant to Suffolk County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Anita Katz.

Both campaigns will appear in Suffolk County Supreme Court next Tuesday, November 30, to address the 1,261 ballots called into question by Mr. Altschuler’s campaign and the 790 ballots challenged by Mr. Bishop’s campaign. Once a judge decides which objections should be thrown away and which ones are valid, it will be up to the Board of Elections to finally declare a winner.

“Our hope is we can have someone certified by Friday,” Mr. Schneider said, referring to next Friday, December 3.

UPDATE: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 8:45 A.M.

U.S. Representative Tim Bishop ended Monday 206 votes ahead of his challenger, Randy Altschuler, according to Jon Schneider, a spokesman for Mr. Bishop.

Since last Tuesday, election workers have counted 9,200 absentee and affidavit ballots, leaving 1,912 ballots left to be counted, according to Mr. Schneider. All of the remaining absentee and affidavit ballots come from Brookhaven Town; election workers have already counted ballots from Southampton, East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southold and Smithtown towns.

The tally does not take into account hundreds of ballots that are contested by both campaigns, which may eventually be ruled on by a State Supreme Court justice. As of Monday evening, Mr. Altschuler’s campaign has challenged the legitimacy of 1,051 ballots, while Mr. Bishop’s campaign has challenged the legitimacy of 714 ballots, according to Mr. Schneider.

UPDATE: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 6:30 P.M.

U.S. Representative Tim Bishop’s lead over his opponent, Randy Altschuler, grew to 164 votes on Monday evening, as election workers neared the end of their fifth day of counting absentee and affidavit ballots, according to Rob Ryan, a spokesman for Mr. Altschuler.

There are 2,697 ballots left to be counted, according to Mr. Ryan, all of which are from Brookhaven Town. Since Tuesday, election workers have counted 8,776 absentee ballots from the towns of Southampton, East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southold and Smithtown, according to Mr. Ryan.

Mr. Bishop was behind by 383 votes before the count of the absentee and affidavit ballots began last week.

The current tally does not take into account hundreds of contested ballots, which were called into question by both campaigns since Tuesday. A State Supreme Court justice may have to decide the legitimacy of those ballots at some point.

Election workers are not expected to finish counting before Thursday, when they break for Thanksgiving, according to Ivan Young, the assistant to Anita Katz, the Democratic commissioner of the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

About half of the approximately 140 military absentee ballots are included in the current count of the absentee and affidavit ballots, according to Christopher Maloney, Mr. Altschuler’s campaign manager. The other half will be counted separately, he said, because there was an error on the ballots those service members were provided with.

Today, Mr. Maloney said he was confident that many of the challenges filed by Mr. Altschuler’s campaign will hold up in court, because they are lodged against people who own second and third homes on the East End, while many of Mr. Bishop’s will prove “frivolous.” Both sides of criticized the other in recent weeks for challenging the legitimacy of absentee ballots.

Ivan Young, the assistant to Suffolk County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Anita Katz, has said the BOE will not release official results of the absentee ballot count until the process is complete, so the information must come from the campaigns until that point.

UPDATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 8 P.M.

U.S. Representative Tim Bishop squeaked ahead of his challenger, Randy Altschuler, for the first time on Friday evening, as election workers wrapped up their fourth day counting absentee ballots, according to Jon Schneider, a spokesman for Mr. Bishop.

Mr. Bishop was leading by just 15 votes as of Friday evening, after election workers finished counting absentee ballots from Southampton, East Hampton, Riverhead, Southold, Shelter Island and Smithtown towns, and began counting absentee ballots from Brookhaven Town, according to Mr. Schneider. Mr. Altschuler, a Republican from St. James, was leading by 383 votes when the counting of some 10,100 absentee ballots began on Tuesday.

The counting will resume on Monday, according to Mr. Schneider.

Along with the absentee ballots, Mr. Schneider said the latest figures also take into account affidavit ballots and most military ballots filed in the 1st Congressional District race. The figures do not include hundreds of absentee ballots whose legitimacy have been called into question by the two campaigns—those ballots could change the outcome of the race once a State Supreme Court judge eventually rules on them.

Workers at Suffolk County Board of Election headquarters in Yaphank finished the latest day of counting at around 7:30 p.m. Friday. They will take the weekend off, and begin counting again on Monday morning.

UPDATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 4:30 P.M.

As absentee ballots from the five East End towns were all tallied on Friday afternoon, U.S. Representative Tim Bishop was still trailing his challenger, Randy Altschuler, by 30 votes, according to Jon Schneider, a spokesman for Mr. Bishop.

Still, Mr. Schneider said in an interview that Mr. Bishop might actually be in the lead, because Mr. Altschuler’s campaign has challenged the legitimacy of 691 absentee ballots that are expected to be in support of Mr. Bishop—many of which, he said, likely will be ruled valid by a State Supreme Court justice at some point.

“Case law is crystal clear that those votes will count,” Mr. Schneider said. “So, essentially, they have a lead at this point based solely on objections.”

Mr. Bishop’s campaign has challenged the legitimacy of 480 absentee ballots that were likely cast in support of Mr. Altschuler, Mr. Schneider said. The difference between the number challenged by Mr. Altschuler and Mr. Bishop at this point is 211 votes, many more than separate the two candidates.

At about 4:30 p.m. on Friday, election workers had finished counting absentee ballots from Southampton, East Hampton, Southold, Shelter Island and Riverhead towns, and also Smithtown, Mr. Schneider said. They had just started counting ballots from Brookhaven Town, the last remaining portion of the 1st Congressional District.

The ballots challenged by Mr. Altschuler’s campaign are largely from the East End, and the challenges were mostly based on issues of residency, Mr. Schneider said. When campaign representatives challenge an absentee ballot, they do not know which candidate the ballot was cast in favor of, but they do know information about the voter, including party affiliation, age and hometown.

Election workers are not expected to finish counting today, as Brookhaven is by far the largest of the towns in the 1st Congressional District.

UPDATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 11:30 A.M.

More than two hours into the fourth day of counting absentee ballots, U.S. Representative Tim Bishop still trailed his challenger, Randy Altschuler, by 81 votes—coincidentally, the same margin as when counting ended the previous night, according to Jon Schneider, a spokesman for Mr. Bishop.

Suffolk County Board of Election workers have finished counting absentee ballots in Southampton, East Hampton, Southold and Smithtown towns, and began counting absentee ballots from Shelter Island on Friday morning, according to Mr. Schneider.

In a press release issued on Friday morning, Mr. Schneider pointed to the fact that Mr. Altschuler’s campaign has challenged the legitimacy of 535 absentee ballots, calling it a strategy “designed to suppress Bishop’s momentum.” Mr. Bishop’s campaign, in turn, has challenged the legitimacy of 342 absentee ballots.

Rob Ryan, a spokesman for Mr. Altschuler, dismissed the charge leveled by Mr. Schneider. When asked whether or not the challenging of absentee ballots was part of a strategy, Mr. Ryan said: “It is a strategy to preserve the integrity of this vote. Challenging absentee ballots in a hotly contested race is standard operating procedure.”

UPDATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 9:30 A.M.

Republican Randy Altschuler’s slim lead over U.S. Representative Tim Bishop continued to narrow today as election workers finished tallying absentee ballots from voters who live in Southampton and Smithtown towns, and began counting absentee ballots from East Hampton and Southold towns.

When counting ended on Thursday night, Mr. Altschuler’s lead had shrunk to 81 votes, down from the 383-vote lead he had before the counting of the absentee ballots started on Tuesday, according to Rob Ryan, a spokesman for Mr. Altschuler. At that point, just over 4,500 ballots had been counted, and about 7,000 remained to be counted.

Ivan Young, the assistant to Suffolk County Board of Elections Democratic Commissioner Anita Katz, said the BOE will not release official results of the absentee ballot count until the process is complete, so the information must come from the campaigns until that point.

It remains unclear how long it will take election workers to plod through all the absentee ballots cast in the 1st Congressional District race, but the process has proved to be slow. The results are likely to determine the outcome of the election.

The results at this point do not take into account the absentee ballots that stand in contention. As of Thursday afternoon, Republicans had challenged the legitimacy of 347 ballots and Democrats have challenged the legitimacy of 274 ballots according to Jon Schneider, a spokesman for Mr. Bishop.

Those contested ballots will eventually be passed on to the Democratic and Republican commissioners of the Board of Elections. If the commissioners cannot agree on the legitimacy of individual ballots, they will eventually be passed on to a New York State Supreme Court justice, according to Mr. Young.

In a warehouse at Board of Elections headquarters in Yaphank, several pairs of election workers—one Democrat and one Republican per team—are counting absentee ballots, while representatives from both campaigns look on. The teams have been working until about 7:30 p.m. each evening, according to Mr. Young. They may also work on the weekends, he said, although they will take off on Thursday and Friday of next week for Thanksgiving.

In an adjacent room, meanwhile, election workers continued today with a mandatory audit of 3 percent of voting machines used for the first time this past Election Day. As of Thursday afternoon, workers had completed counting ballots in 28 of the 44 machines, and no problems with the equipment have emerged, according to Mr. Young.