About Last Night...

Well, it happened. As many people feared, the results of the special election yesterday left the race between Jim Tedisco (R) and Scott Murphy (D) too close to call. As the results trickled in throughout the evening, Tedisco saw a healthy lead slowly whittled away. Scott Murphy had a 65 vote lead (numbers vary depending on the source) when election officials called it a night. The race will hinge on absentee and military ballots, which needed to be postmarked by March 30th and received no later than April 7th (military ballots must be received by the following week). While both parties are prematurely claiming victory, we must wait at least another two weeks for a result, barring any further challenges. A promising sign for Tedisco is that more Republicans requested absentee ballots than did Democrats and Tedisco leads Murphy in the group of absentee ballots that were counted yesterday. Republicans also expect Tedisco to lead among military voters. All in all, up to 10,000 absentee ballots may be returned, so a 65-vote swing is definitely manageable for Tedisco. This race is truly up in the air at this point. Stay tuned.