OntheWilderSide

KW: This is about the 20th Congressional District in NY, where there was a special election due to the fact that now Senator Gillibrand vacated the seat. Myself and other third party folk were very vested in this race, because Eric Sundwall was trying to run as a Libertarian. More about that below the main news story.

(excerpt from) MSNBC
Tedisco concedes in NY-20
Posted: Friday, April 24, 2009 4:01 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC’s Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro

Republican Jim Tedisco just conceded to Democrat Scott Murphy in the special congressional in upstate New York that first took place on March 31…

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Commentary and article about third parties in the Murphy/Tedisco race:

The article includes an interesting method for predicting voting results of contested ballots based on which party a voter is registered in. (It is unclear whether the method was designed by the author of the article, or the Democrats who presented some results to the media.)

The article lists some of the alternative parties, and puts those voters in categories suggesting which direction their votes may go – perhaps based on perceived leanings or on actual platforms. Though, Libertarian enrollees are conspicuously left out. “Libertarian” is a party in New York. And, in fact, there was a Libertarian (Eric Sundwall) who has supporters and had filed signatures to run in this race. After being thrown off the ballot, the Libertarian candidate even made an endorsement in the race  – for Democrat Scott Murphy. So, in making predictions, it seems like it would be logical to predict that Libertarian votes in this race to go more towards the Democrat.

(excerpt from) The Boston Herald /AP
3 weeks later, NY House race draws closer to end
Friday, April 24, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y. – With a dwindling number of votes still to be counted three weeks after Election Day, the Democratic candidate had the clear edge in a New York congressional race that drew national attention as a referendum on President Barack Obama’s policies.

Democrat Scott Murphy leads Republican Jim Tedisco by 401 votes out of more than 160,000 votes cast. And of the contested ballots not yet counted in the 20th Congressional District, twice as many are from voters registered in the Democratic Party or allied minor parties compared to those from voters registered in the Republican Party and its allies.

The latest count from the state Board of Elections had Murphy with 80,368 votes and Tedisco with 79,967 votes, but the Republican wasn’t conceding…

Democrats provided Wednesday’s count of contested ballots, which showed 435 are from registered Democrats, Green Party voters and members of the Working Families Party. Another 201 are from registered Republicans and Conservatives, potentially Tedisco voters. The remaining 125 votes are from people in other parties or with unlisted registrations…

The diverse district stretches from the rural Adirondack Mountains, south of the Canadian border, to the mid-Hudson Valley, north of New York City. It has more than 196,000 Republicans, about 125,000 Democrats and 118,000 unaffiliated voters…

Lawyers for both candidates were in Albany on Thursday at the state Board of Elections to review contested ballots. They dropped many of their objections, meaning the number of contested ballots will drop Friday as the latest calculations are made.

The votes that remain contested will be decided in court.

Previous story from IPR: Former Libertarian candidate Eric Sundwall endorsed Scott Murphy

Filed under: 3rd party, Ballot issues, election, elections, New York State Politics, News, politics, rants, third party, US Politics Tagged: | Eric Sundwall, Gillibrand, Jim Tedisco, libertarian, Scott Murphy