SYRACUSE -- Ann Marie Buerkle’s campaign says it is a “mathematical certainty” that she has won the race for the 25th Congressional District over incumbent Rep. Dan Maffei.
Campaign workers are basing that assessment on the count of absentee ballots in Onondaga County. Maffei has won the absentee ballot count in Onondaga County, but it's still not enough to take the overall lead in the race.
At the last official count earlier this week, Republican challenger Buerkle lead by 824 votes. Friday, elections officials in Wayne County found a discrepancy in votes from election night, giving Buerkle another 144 votes, for a lead of 968 votes.
Onondaga County finished counting its absentee ballots Friday afternoon. Democrat Maffei picked up 557 votes over Buerkle, which gives her a total lead of 411 votes.
“While Maffei gained some votes yesterday when the City of Syracuse absentees were counted, he failed to gain what he needed to overcome Buerkle’s lead. At some point the numbers just don’t work. There is not room for Maffei to gain anymore ground in this race,” said Buerkle campaign spokeswoman Liza Lowery.
Maffei campaign spokeswoman Abigail Gardner added "As we've always said, the most important thing is that every eligible vote needs to be counted and we are nearing completion of that lengthy process. Wayne County still needs to count their absentee ballots."
Wayne County is scheduled to open approximately 1,400 absentee ballots Saturday. Buerkle campaign attorney Jeff Buley says he expects Buerkle to pick up even more votes when that count gets underway.
Either way, the Buerkle campaign says the election will not be certified until next week, but Buley feels the clear winner will emerge Friday afternoon.
Thursday afternoon update:
Incumbent Rep. Dan Maffei has cut into challenger Ann Marie Buerkle's lead in the race for the 25th Congressional District, according to a report from the Maffei campaign.
Maffei spokeswoman Abigail Gardner sent an email to local media Thursday saying that as of noon approximately 55% of the absentee ballots in Onondaga County have been counted. As a result, Gardner says Maffei, a Democrat, has gained 521 more votes in the county, trimming the Republican Buerkle's lead to 303 district-wide.
The vote totals for Onondaga County stand at:
- Maffei: 2,101 (57.1%)
- Buerkle: 1,580 (42.9%)
A reminder that the Onondaga County Board of Elections will not release official results until all votes have been counted. The county is in its second day of tallying absentee ballots. These statistics are from the Maffei campaign, which along with the Buerkle campaign is monitoring the vote count. These totals do not include challenges to individual votes, which have been made by both sides.
Wednesday evening update:
It has been two weeks and a day since the election, and every time new absentee ballots have been counted Republican Ann Marie Buerkle has added to her lead over Democrat incumbent Rep. Dan Maffei. Wednesday was no different, as Buerkle has once again extended her lead over Maffei in the still-undecided race for the 25th Congressional District.
By order of State Supreme Court Judge Brian DeJoseph, Monroe County opened absentee ballots that had been previously set aside. Buerkle picked up an additional 95 votes, bringing her lead over Maffei to 824.
Buerkle’s vote total is now 100,468, while Maffei stands at 99,644.
Onondaga County began counting 6,090 absentee ballots Wednesday. County Elections Commissioners Helen Kiggins and Edward Ryan both say they will not release any official numbers until all absentee ballots are counted, which could be sometime this weekend.
The Maffei camp informed CNY Central late Wednesday afternoon that the Maffei is leading in the absentee ballot count in Onondaga County and has cut into Buerkle's overall lead by 182 votes. They emphasize however this is just a "snapshot" of the absentee count which has a long way to go.
Wednesday morning update:
State Supreme Court Judge Brian DeJoseph is ordering Monroe County elections officials to open more than 200 absentee ballots in the race for the 25th Congressional District.
During a court hearing Wednesday morning in Syracuse, Judge DeJoseph asked for an update from election officials and attorney's for both Democratic incumbent Dan Maffei and Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle.
He then ordered about 230 absentee ballots from Monroe County to be opened immediately. He says they were set aside without specific objections. The ballots are being opened and counted in the court room.
Onondaga County election officials are going forward as scheduled and opening absentee ballots today.
Buerkle leads Maffei by 729 votes. That number has not changed based on today's counting.
Attorney's who went before Judge DeJoseph say they don't expect to have a clear winner until after Thanksgiving.
Original Story:
The battle for votes in the 25th Congressional District returns to court in Syracuse Wednesday morning.
Judge Brian DeJoseph will hear arguments from attorneys representing democrats and republicans as both sides try to sort out issues related to counting votes. Incumbent Democrat Dan Maffei is trailing Republican challenger Ann Marie Buerkle by 729 votes.
Some of the issues that have already been discussed in court are absentee ballot challenges, making copies and what qualifies as an eligible vote.
The hearing begins at 10:00 a.m. The decision on whether there will be another hearing this week will come after Wednesday's proceedings.
