Sen. Gillibrand’s absentee ballot challenged

Republican Jim Tedisco has challenged the absentee ballot of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in the special election for Gillibrand’s former House seat in upstate New York.

The Tedisco camp claims Gillibrand was in the district on Election Day and therefore should have voted at a polling place, not with an absentee ballot.

{mosads}”Representatives from the campaign are raising concerns on those ballots that may have been improperly cast, regardless of who they may belong to,” said Tyler Brown, a spokesman for Tedisco.

Tedisco currently trails Democrat Scott Murphy by 47 votes. The New York State Board of Elections is now counting approximately 6,700 absentee ballots that are likely to determine the outcome of the race. Either camp may challenge absentee ballots, as they believe they have grounds to do so and the challenge will hold up in court.

A spokesman for the New York Board of Elections, John Conklin, said that similar challenges have occurred before but with little success. In most cases, courts have ruled that the ballot should be counted if the voter did not intend to be in the district on Election Day and did not vote at a polling place as well.

Conklin also noted, though, that an absentee ballot challenge on these grounds has not been ruled on by the state’s highest court.

Matt Canter, a spokesman for Gillibrand, told The Hill that the challenge won’t hold up.

“The Republicans challenge is frivolous and without merit,” Canter said. “This is part of their larger attempt to try to disenfranchise legal Democratic voters and delay what appears to be an inevitable Democratic victory in the district.”

Canter also said that Gillibrand wasn’t in Columbia County on Election Day, where she is registered to vote, and therefore could not have voted at a polling place.