Three lawsuits filed over election results in New York state Senate races
Rachel Schilke
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A trio of lawsuits has been filed in connection with election results in New York state Senate races.
One lawsuit was filed in relation to the state Senate race in New York’s 42nd District, and two were filed in connection to the state Senate race in the 50th District.
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In the 50th District, both the GOP and Democratic candidates filed lawsuits on Nov. 9 asking the court to order the preservation of ballots and election records, citing different reasons.
GOP candidate Rebecca Shiroff, who said she was up by 396 votes as of Nov. 9, is alleging that voting machines are inaccurately counting ballots.
“Several Voting Machines used in this election were defective, which may result in inaccurate tallies of votes; additionally, there are certainly other irregularities in the election process which may give rise to improper votes being canvassed or the canvass of inaccurate returns,” the lawsuit said.
Democratic candidate John Mannion, who also filed a lawsuit, is seeking a recount. He said in the lawsuit that the margin separating Mannion and Shiroff will be below 0.5 percentage points. If true, a section of New York Election Law says that “the board of elections or a bipartisan committee appointed by the board shall conduct a full manual recount of all ballots for a particular contest … where the margin of victory is 0.5% or less,” per Mannion’s lawsuit.
Mannion’s lawsuit said he has “no interest” in superseding election law proceedings or dictating how the New York State Board of Elections will conduct a canvass of the general election.
In Shiroff’s lawsuit, however, she is asking the court to both suspend the Board of Elections from certifying election results and “further [declare] that the Respondent Board of Elections certify the name of Petitioner, Rebecca Shiroff, as the candidate duly elected to the said public office.”
On Nov. 10, Judge Scott Delconte ruled that the Board of Elections can resume casting and canvassing absentee, military, special, and affidavit ballots. Delconte said Mannion and Shiroff are permitted to have counsel or designated poll watchers observe the canvassing.
A conference between the court and the candidates’ counsels will occur on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
The third lawsuit, filed in the 42nd District, is on behalf of GOP candidate Dorey Houle. Houle alleged the Orange County Board of Elections is in possession of ballots that have not been counted and that defective machines are affecting the results. She is behind by 1,180 votes as of Nov. 10.
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The court has not issued an order on the third lawsuit as of Monday.
While Republican Party hopes nationwide were largely dashed by a blue wall that staved off sizable GOP congressional gains, the Republican Party performed unexpectedly well in New York, with some analysts suggesting Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin at the head of the ticket swept down-ballot candidates into office.