6,000 Absentee Ballots Uncounted in New York 20

Are the Republicans about to stop their election bleeding? Are the voters turning against stimulus and bailouts? Is an Obama endorsement a magic ticket to victory? The entire political world, media, pundits, and consultants look to NY Congressional District 20, and Republican Tedisco vs. Democrat Murphy for the answer. This special election is over the seat vacated by Gillibrand, who was tapped to replace Hillary Clinton as New York's Senator.

NY 20 is a bellwether district these days, having gone from solid Republican to Democratic in 2006 and 2008. Polling was tight and, even better for the punditry, Obama endorsed Murphy and Tedisco came out against the Stimulus. Stories were written and ready to go about the Obama coattail effect or the electoral pushback against deficit spending.

And the good voters of NY 20 shrugged, at least the ones that didn't vote absentee. Narratives will have to wait. 65 votes is all that separates the candidates as reported by Chris Weber.Nevertheless, I'd rather be Jim Tedisco right now because it appears that the Republicans have learned some things after the Minnesota fiasco.

AP

There were more than 10,000 absentee ballots sent to voters who were registered in the district but were unable to vote at their polling places. Nearly 6,000 had been returned, but none of them was to be counted Tuesday night, state election officials said. New York agreed to count overseas absentee ballots until April 13, instead of the initial April 7 cutoff, after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state for not giving overseas voters enough time to return ballots.

Republicans think they have a 1,000 vote advantage in these ballots. But why would they impound them?:

Newsmax.com

State GOP party officials say they want to ensure that the goings-on in Minnesota -- which saw an initial Coleman lead of over 775 votes steadily dwindle to a deficit of 225 votes, with an indeterminate number of ballots being counted twice and other ballots either disappearing or being discovered weeks after the election – don't occur in the Empire State.

In addition to that, there will be a steady trickle of absentee ballots from the military.

Albany Watch

The state Board of Elections has extended the deadline for military and overseas voters in the 20th congressional race to get their absentee ballots in, the agency announced this morning. Instead of the usual seven days after the election for the votes to be received, there will be 13 days-until April 13. Ballots must be postmarked by March 30.