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This belongs to you. Take it back...
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20th CD 
Sat Apr 18, 2009 at 13:51:59 PM EDT
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( - promoted by phillip anderson)
Most people instinctively understand why we need to speak out about the strategy deployed by Jim Tedisco's legal "team" in their close race with Scott Murphy for New York's 20th Congressional seat.
A minority, however (including a handful of Kos posters, and sites such as Talking Points Memo) don't seem to get it, and have shrugged at Tedisco's heavyhanded manipulation of the process.
So I think this is a good moment to go back and consider the design of New York's Election Law -- how it is supposed to normally operate.
To that end, let's review how an election (and an election dispute) normally proceeds, under the clear and sane existing guidelines of New York State. I'll skip some of the minutiae, focusing on the fundamentals of the process, after the jump...
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Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 01:31:17 AM EDT
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( - promoted by phillip anderson)
----== Cross-posted at Kos ==----
Just when you thought the Tedisco campaign's tactics couldn't get any more absurd here in the 20th Congressional District, they just got utterly ridiculous.
According to late Thursday night report in the Hudson Register-Star, the Tedisco legal team filed suit in Dutchess County court demanding to be declared the winner in the special election race with Scott Murphy.
Yup, you heard that right.
Tedisco's down by 178 votes, according to the official New York State Board of Elections tally. Yet he's asking a judge to declare him the winner.
Come again?
Even though he's falling farther and farther behind as the count reaches its final three counties, and even though the vast majority of ballots yet to be opened are Democrats challenged by Tedisco.
Head-spinning details after the jump...
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Wed Apr 15, 2009 at 11:28:56 AM EDT
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UPDATE: The NYS Board of Elections now pegs Murphy's lead as +168. Use this link to check the official numbers.
The justifiably celebrated Nate Silver of 538.com predicts that Scott Murphy will win the hotly-contested race for New York 20th Congressional Distict handily, by "500-600" votes.
(How cool would it be if Murphy won by 538 votes exactly?)
Silver, for those who just bought their first computer, is the baseball statistics genius who very precisely predicted the outcomes of both the 2008 Democratic primaries and the general election. If anything, he says, he may be underestimating Murphy's margin, given Jimmy Disco's Colemanesque strategery:
More teabag tax day updates below the fold...
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Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 14:52:41 PM EDT
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( - promoted by phillip anderson)
This just in:
B R E A K I N G
Allegations have arisen that Tedisco is targeting Jewish absentee voters who received their ballots in New York City and Florida:
Politico:
Most of the action was taking place in Columbia County, where Tedisco attorney James Walsh objected to nearly every absentee ballot that came from voters who own a residence in New York City or Florida.
[There is] a concerted effort from Tedisco's campaign to challenge the legality of ballots from voters who have their primary residence outside of the district. According to Democratic figures, about 60 percent of the absentee ballot challenges came from Tedisco as of last Friday, and that number has shot up with today's rash of challenges.
The slew of challenges led Democrats in Columbia County accusing Tedisco of deliberately trying to disenfranchise Jewish voters, since many of the ballots from the city came from voters with last names like Cohen, Pollack and Rosengarten.
"My children are Jewish, and I'm offended by that," Walsh responded to the New York Observer.
A N D
Read this article, about the ratcheting up of phony "vote fraud" allegations from the Tedisco camp:
http://ccscoop.com/news/09apri...
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Thu Apr 09, 2009 at 00:03:45 AM EDT
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( - promoted by phillip anderson)
MEDIA UPDATE! The Times-Union has come around to reporting on the story here in Columbia:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspS...
Commendations to reporter Leigh Hornbeck for taking a second look, when evidence of a problem was brought to her attention.
HUMOROUS UPDATE: The Tedisco legal team has apparently been complaining that the reason the count is going so slowly is that they have to access data on the web, but the County won't allow outside access to its internet system, so they have to use slow satellite cards.
But take a close look at this photo in CCScoop. Check out what's on the screen of the guy with the laptop:
He's not accessing an online database -- that's the Drudge Report he's reading!
EVENING UPDATE: Check out what is being reported in The Hudson Register-Star on Friday:
Much more after the jump...
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Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 13:11:31 PM EDT
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Some may not like this bucket of cold water, but here goes:
It's great that Murphy is technically ahead (though by a statistically meaningless margin, considering the number of ballots left to count). But prematurely spinning this election as a solid victory for Obama or the New York State Democratic Party or even Mr. Murphy is a double-edged sword. Now is the time not for self-congratulation or gloating, but to do whatever we can to help the Murphy team with the absentee fight to come.
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