In a letter to his supporters, the Conservative
Party congressional candidate writes:
As evidence surfaces, we find out that reported results from
election night were far from accurate. ACORN and the unions did
their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter
Bill Owens. I was forced to concede after receiving two pieces
of grim news - - down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote
counted on election night - and barely won my stronghold in
Oswego County. On Election Night, the information we received
was far different from what we received this week! . . .I'm
sure you are as dismayed as I am to learn of the mischief that
took place in Oswego and neighboring counties. . . .
A recanvassing in the 11-county district shows Owens' lead has
narrowed to 3,026. In Oswego County, I was reported to lead by
only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election
night, but inspectors found I actually won by 1,748 votes . . .
.
The district's second biggest voter turnout was in Jefferson
County, where I had also benefited from a turnaround since
election night, gaining another 700 votes. Owens led by 300
votes on the final election night tally, but after
recanvassing, I'm now leading by 424 votes. Jerry Eaton, the
Republican elections commissioner for Jefferson County, said
inspectors found a problem in four districts where my vote
total was mistakenly entered as zero. The new vote totals mean
the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which the
state Board of Elections distributed about 10,200. . . .
You
can read the whole thing. My own source suggested last week
that it is unlikely that Hoffman's margin in those absentee
ballots would be enough to erase the 3,026-vote gap.
However, the need to ensure an accurate count, and to expose any
potential illegalities, is still very important. If anyone
has committed criminal wrongdoing in this upstate New York
district, they need to be identified and prosecuted.
Furthermore, the narrowing of the gap by more than 2,300 votes
between the reported results on Election Night and the actual
vote tally shows how misreporting can affect political outcomes.
If the reported margin had been narrower -- and
especially if the tallies in Oswego and Jefferson had been
accurately reported -- Hoffman never would have conceded that
night.
Most of all, the discovery of the errors (or "mischief") in
the vote-count makes it a near-certainty that Hoffman will
challenge Owens in NY23 in 2010.
More at
Townhall.com and
Politico. (Hat-tip: Memeorandum.)
UPDATE 3:53 p.m.:
Virus found in voting-machine software taints results.
topics:
Doug Hoffman
