Count every vote

When Anthony Brindisi ran against upstate freshman Rep. Claudia Tenney in 2018, the Democratic challenger narrowly unseated the Republican incumbent. A rematch happened this year, and it’s about 500 times closer, with Tenney now leading (if it can be called that) by 12 votes out of 310,972 tallied for the pair, 155,492 to 155,480.

The outcome for the eight-county district is now before Oswego County state Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte along with a pile of disputed and unopened absentee and affidavit ballots. Arguments about which to open happen next Monday. But whatever ballots are added, it’s just about certain that the contest will remain ultra-close. And in New York, we actually know what to do then: Open up the machines and hand count every paper ballot.

In the decade since New York moved to paper ballots, the otherwise retrograde city Board of Elections has had a smart rule for automatic hand counts in razor-thin contests. Finally, after years of urging from these columns, the state adopted the same rule earlier this year. It was crammed deep in Part JJ of the state budget. Of course, the obvious place for an election reform.

The law mandates automatic hand counts “where the margin of victory is twenty votes or less,” which could happen here, or “where the margin of victory is 0.5% or less” — which is essentially a guarantee, as the current margin is 0.0039%, more than 100 times closer than new law requires.

But there’s a hitch, as the new statute only takes effect next month, Jan. 1, 2021, and “shall apply to any election held 120 days or more after such effective date,” or May 1.

Should the numbers remain this close, Del-Conte must order the hand count. Send the people’s choice to Congress.