Monday, November 16, 2009 Update:

From TheHill:

Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has “unconceded” in New York’s special House election after reports that the vote margin between him and Rep. Bill Owens (D) has narrowed.

Hoffman conceded the race on Election Night after learning he trailed Owens by 5,335 votes. But the Syracuse Post-Standard reported last week that the margin had shrunk to 3,026 votes after recanvassing.

Hoffman appeared on conservative commenatator Glenn Beck’s radio show this afternoon. Beck asked the him if he would “unconcede.”

“Yes, if I knew this information at the election night, I would not have conceded,” Hoffman said. Beck asked him again if he was “uncondeding” and Hoffman replied “If that’s possible, yes.”

HotAir featured the sound bite from Glenn Beck’s radio program:

Friday, November 13, 2009 Update:

The Gouverneur Times presents an updated view of the context of the 23rd CD’s vote:

The letter that was sent to the Clerk of the House of Representatives by the Board of Elections and entered into House record on Nov. 6th shows that only 3,026 votes separated the candidates according to the unofficial results submitted. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, as the most senior member of New York’s Congressional Delegation, put forth Bill Owens for swearing-in to the 111th Congress. In doing so, he indicated that “His Certificate of Election has not arrived, but there is no contest, and no question has been raised with regard to his election.”

This statement, however, was not entirely true. Representatives for Bill Owens’ campaign had contested the election results on November 2nd, 2009 and ordered the vote impounded according to officials.

The move, regardless of Owens’ standing with respect to the results, was a clear indicator to the Board of Elections that the election result was contested. The votes were impounded and the official result delayed until sometime in mid-December when the final counts will be certified.

The article goes on to say that since Mr. Hoffman erroneously decided to concede the election, the impound order was removed, allowing the officials to report the unofficial results to the House.

Yet:

[Communications Director for the Board of Elections John] Conklin indicates that all of the ballots in this race will be counted and that the NYS Board of Elections will declare a winner when that vote count is completed, sometime in December.

As Jude Seymour at the Watertown Daily Times pointed out this morning,“It’s mathematically possible that Douglas L. Hoffman could pass Rep. William L. Owens when all absentee ballots in the 23rd Congressional District race are counted…”

Bill Owens’ campaign was aware of how close this race would be and had pre-emptively ordered the votes impounded to prevent Doug Hoffman being sworn-in immediately if the preliminary results went Hoffman’s way.

If the vote goes to Hoffman, the Board of Elections says that Owens “will have to be removed.” …

By placing an unofficial winner in the House, the Speaker is removing that decision from the hands of the people.

This evening, Mr. Hoffman sent out the following email to supporters:

A Recount is underway! It’s not over…

Our Campaign Is Not Over Yet!

You have stood by us through this challenging campaign, one that took many unexpected twists and turns. First two liberals were running against one conservative. Then the liberal Republican dropped out of the race and, showing her true colors, endorsed the real Pelosi Democrat. On Election Day the votes were close, and we thought we had lost.

Yet now, a little more than a week after Election Day, our fight takes another turn as reports surface that the election was far closer than we had originally thought. There is only a 3,000-vote difference and final tally will be decided by a count of10,000 absentee ballots.

Our fight continues as we keep a close eye on the recount. See below:

Not so fast: NY-23 vote margin narrows
The Hill
Bill Owens (D) was sworn into Congress last week after Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman conceded in New York’s special election, but a report today …
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/67513-not-so-fast-ny-23-vote-margin-narrows

The Counting In NY 23 Is (Gasp!) Not Over
NPR
Owens led Hoffman by 300 votes on the final election night tally. But after recanvassing, Hoffman now leads by 424 votes, 10884 to 10460. “For Doug to win, …
http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/11/the_counting_in_ny_23_is_gasp.html Owens May Have to Be Removed
The Gouverneur Times
… won the NY-23 Congressional Special Election. Several errors were made during the initial vote counts. Over 2000 votes for contender Doug Hoffman were …
http://www.gouverneurtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7824:ny-23-election-not-over-yet&catid=60:st-lawrence-news&Itemid=175

Michelle Malkin » Did Doug Hoffman concede too early?
By Michelle Malkin
You’ll remember on election night a few weeks ago, upstate New York was reporting all sorts of ballot-counting glitches even as NY-23 conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded the race. Now, the Syracuse Post-Standard reports that …
Michelle Malkin -- http://michellemalkin.com/
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/12/did-doug-hoffman-concede-too-early/

Democrat’s Winning Margin in Upstate New York House Race in Doubt
by  AP
Though Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn into Congress last week, the routine recanvassing of votes shows Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/12/democrats-winning-margin-upstate-new-york-house-race-doubt/

Doug Hoffman ’seriously’ looking at 2010 bid
Politico
Photo: AP Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party nominee who lost to Democrat Bill Owens in New York’s special election last week, says he is “seriously …
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29446.html

—-

Did you know that the House race in New York’s 23rd Congressional District isn’t over yet? According to Syracuse.com, the margin between the Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman and currently-sworn-in (more on this below) Democrat Rep. Bill Owens has shrunk to just over 3,000 votes:

Washington — Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County.

As it turns out, neither was true.

But Hoffman’s concession — based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted — set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill.

There’s more to the background of the story at the link, but I wanted to lead through to the main point of this.

Right now, there are over 10,000 absentee ballots left to count. And while one may hope that Hoffman has a chance of actually pulling a win in this race, it would likely be exceptionally difficult to do, as when some of the ballots went out, then-Republican DeDe Scozzafava was still in the race.

The Gouverneur Times goes on:

Several errors were made during the initial vote counts.  Over 2,000 votes for contender Doug Hoffman were not counted in the preliminary results, narrowing the current vote gap to less than 3,000 votes between Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Doug Hoffman.

The errors were discovered during the standard vote recanvas that has been underway since November 4th.  The largest error occurred in Oswego County where the vote recanvas found a discrepancy of more than 1,200 votes in Doug Hoffman’s favor.  Another error, in Jefferson County contributed an additional 700 votes in Hoffman’s favor during the recount.

The election was close enough even on election night that the New York State Board of Elections was unable to present a “clear decision” in the race according to John Conklin, Communications Director for the department.  He said that the Board sent a letter to the Clerk of the House of Representatives in Washington indicating that they could not yet determine a winner and could therefore not certify the election until after the recanvas and absentee ballot count.  Those final numbers will not be available until at least mid-December.

Nancy Pelosi was only able to legally swear-in Bill Owens because Doug Hoffman had conceded the election, indicating that he did not contest the initial, and now shown erroneous, results, something he may not have done if he had been aware of how close the election was.

According to the rest of the article, Mr. Hoffman was attempting to be a “good sport” by conceding the race when he did. However, such oral concessions aren’t legally binding even if it were true that Mr. Hoffman could pull a win.

Do I think that Speaker Pelosi committed election fraud in this instance? Unless there is evidence to show it, no. However, it looks very, very bad and highly suspicious at the very least to essentially “hurry up” and swear in a guy you know will vote for your signature piece of legislation before the State from whence he comes actually certifies him as an elected official, especially when there is a potential for another candidate to legitimately oust Rep. Owens from the post.

So, what would happen if Rep. Owens were not legitimately holding office? He would have to be removed by the House, and his vote on healthcare would be highly suspicious. Then again, having passed 220-215, that would theoretically bring the vote to 219-215, and net nothing changes.

Of course, there are reports that say that Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) only voted for the legislation because the Dems got the vote to 218.

Friday, November 13, 2009 update:

Pamela Geller at AtlasShrugs cross-posted John Charlton’s The Post & Email piece here.

-Phil

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Photo courtesy GouverneurTimes