Republican Claudia Tenney Declares Victory for NY-22 With 123-Vote Lead

Republican congressional candidate Claudia Tenney signals she successfully cast her ballot after voting at St. George's Church in New Hartford, N.Y. on Dec. 1, 2020. Heather Ainsworth/AP Photo

Republican congressional candidate Claudia Tenney is declaring victory in the race for New York’s 22nd Congressional District with a 123-vote lead against incumbent Democrat Anthony Brindisi.

“Boards of Elections in all eight counties completed their court-ordered canvass yesterday; Republican candidate Claudia Tenney prevailed in that process,” Tenney’s campaign said in a statement.

“It’s time for Anthony Brindisi’s Washington operatives to accept the results and stop playing politics with the integrity of our elections.”

Brindisi narrowly won the race against central New York Republican Tenney in 2018, who then served her first term from 2017 to 2019 after U.S. Rep. Richard L. Hanna retired.

U.S. Rep for New York's 22nd congressional district Anthony Joseph Brindisi. Courtesy of U.S. House of Representatives

The two politicians are now in a “rematch” of the 2018 election and have been in a court battle for months, disagreeing over ballots.

“Court proceedings in the race began more than 90 days ago, and Claudia Tenney has led in the vote count every step of the way,” her campaign wrote in the statement. “The court’s review has been thorough, transparent, and fair to all parties. Ballots have been scrutinized and we are confident all legal votes have been counted.”

Brindisi’s campaign, however, refuses to accept the results and said the race isn’t over yet and is too close to call. The incumbent’s campaign still has legal challenges pending and also requested a last-minute effort to block certifications of the election results.

“With a margin between the two candidates of less than .04 percent, the courts must make sure the voters of New York’s 22nd Congressional District receive a complete and fair counting of all lawful votes,” Brindisi’s campaign wrote in a statement.

“We look forward to continuing the legal process and remain confident that once this is resolved, Anthony Brindisi will be declared the winner,” the campaign added.

Brindisi’s campaign has claimed there have been discrepancies between votes tabulated by voting machines and votes counted by hand that appear to be in Tenney’s favor, Syracuse reported.

“In this case, there is reason to believe that voting tabulation machines misread hundreds if not thousands of valid votes as undervotes, and that these tabulation machine errors disproportionately affected Brindisi,” lawyers for Brindisi’s campaign wrote in a written motion on Monday.

Brindisi’s campaign on Monday asked for an audit to help determine whether there should be a recount of all 325,000 ballots, though this request was declined by Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte, who said such recounts rarely change election results.

A New York election lawyer who serves as the State Chair of Common Cause said ballot scanners are accurate in general.

“It’s rare to see a major discrepancy,” civil rights lawyer Leo Glickman said, NewsMax reported. “Every now and then you might see one just because of the way a voter colored in a ballot.”