Democrats Dan Maffei and Republican Ann Marie Buerkle.
SYRACUSE -- UPDATE:
Recanvassing of votes started this afternoon in Monroe County, the smallest section of the 25th Congressional District. Campaign workers for democrat incumbent Dan Maffei and republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle looked over the shoulders of Monroe County Board of Elections officials as the counted the votes cast on Tuesday.
Both campaigns have attorneys on hand for any legal battles that come up in the next couple of weeks. Boards of Elections in all four represented counties are under a court order to impound ballots and voting machines.
Counting of absentee ballots will begin in Monroe County on Tuesday, November 9th and continue until Onondaga County's absentee's are counted on November 17th.
Ann Marie Buerkle currently has a 659 vote lead over Dan Maffei.
Matt's Memo on the candidates: will the one who says he or she has won turn out to be the winner?
EARLIER:
A day after taking the lead in the 25th Congressional Race, Republican Ann Marie Buerkle is all smiles.
"It's a terrific feeling, it really does feel wonderful," Buerkle said.
Buerkle says she confident she'll win the election once all the absentee votes are counted -- and she's acting like it, too.
Wednesday night she sat in on a conference with top Republicans, saying she wants to be ready to make the transition to Washington.
"We'll continue to take the steps necessary so that when the votes are counted -- and we do remain confident -- but when they are counted, we will be in a position to proceed quickly to so that we will not be disadvantaged by the delay this campaign had," Buerkle said.
Meanwhile, Dan Maffei remains confident he'll keep his position in the nation's capital. In a statement tonight, his campaign manager said, "the overwhelming majority of absentee ballots are from Onondaga County, which Maffei won handily, and we expect we will win the absentee vote by more than enough to close the margin and ultimately win the election."
With so much riding on this race, national republicans have sent lawyers in to oversee the final steps in this tight race. Dan Maffei's campaign sent out an e-mail tonight, saying,"National Republicans are already starting to send folks up to my district -- and as Florida in 2000 showed us -- they will do anything to win."
Maffei's campaign said tonight it has local campaign lawyers helping out, with national ones on stand-by. The camp is also asking for money to support the legal process, writing in the e-mail, "We need to raise $25,000 by Monday to make sure that we have the strongest team possible. Your generous support has gotten us to this point - but we need your help to ensure Republicans can't steal this election."
Buerkle says she just wants to let the process play out and make sure each vote is counted.
That process will start tomorrow in Monroe County, when Board of Elections officials will start recanvassing voting machines.
