Show us the ballots

In 2016, Oneida County Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, a Republican, was elected to Congress. In 2018, Oneida County Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, a Democrat, challenged her and won. In 2020, they had a rematch, and in a count delayed for months by horrendous ineptitude by the Oneida County Board of Elections, Tenney won and was certified yesterday, with Brindisi conceding.

Brindisi says he’s running again in 2022. It would be his turn to win. Unless he actually won this time.

The onion-paper-thin margin, with Tenney up 109 votes out of 326,568 cast, leaves open the unlikely although possible outcome that Brindisi actually prevailed. What is certain is that vote totals for each candidate are wrong. There is a way to determine the true numbers: a hand count of the ballots, double checking the 6,785 ballots the scanners considered “blank.”

The Tenney/Brindisi margin was 0.04%. Conveniently, New York State decided, in a new law that took effect on Jan. 1, that in all elections closer than 0.5% or less, such a count is automatic. Inconveniently, the Tenney/Brindisi race happened two months before Jan. 1.

Oswego County state Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte could’ve and should’ve ordered a hand count, but foolishly he whiffed. Brindisi is refusing to fight further, judging that the odds of winning a hand count are quite slim and it would risk casting him as sore loser like Donald Trump. Better to preserve goodwill and try again at the end of next year.

So neither Brindisi nor Tenney will seek a final count. The House won’t seek a final count, owing largely to the divisive 1984 precedent known as the Bloody Eighth. The courts won’t seek a final count.

We agree that the last thing America needs is more Donald Trumps, but this is a bad outcome.

Why can’t the public or press look over the totals themselves? The ballot images are wrongly sealed because of a really stupid decision of the state’s highest court. The Legislature must reverse that ruling and let the true totals come to light.