On election night, Rep. Tim Bishop looked like he was cruising to reelection to his seat representing New York’s 1st Congressional District, in eastern Long Island. The first results out the morning after showed him winning by 3,500 votes. Yet two days later, it turned out that as a result of human error, the votes had been mistabulated — in reality challenger Randy Altschuler was ahed by a slim 383 votes. Now, Bishop is going to court to seek a full recount. But the outcome is likely to hinge on 10,100 absentee ballots remaining to be counted. And there, Altschuler appears to be in good shape, a local news site, 27east.com reports:
A party-by-party breakdown of the absentee ballots provided by Mr. Schneider on Tuesday gives an apparent edge to Mr. Altschuler. Mr. Schneider said 4,039 absentee ballots came from registered Republicans, while 3,684 came from registered Democrats and 1,822 came from voters with no party affiliation. An additional 313 came from Independence Party members, 248 from Conservative Party members and 13 from Working Families Party members.
Here was Bishop last year in a contentious town hall meeting, in which he told jeering constituents that, “”the central purpose of the constitution is to provide for the common good.”