Absentee Deadline Passed, but NY-20 Vote Count Continues

Well, the April 13 absentee ballot deadline has come and gone, and yet we don't seem to have a winner in the Scott Murphy-Jim Tedisco special Congressional election. Why not? For one thing, the board of elections is counting slowly, probably because they are surrounded by the candidates' lawyers who are pouncing on every possible advantage. The Tedisco team objects to many ballots, and seems to focus on those cast by Jews and by people with ties to New York City or Florida, which Republicans in that rural jurisdiction may consider the same thing; also, they want even more time granted for military ballots to be allowed in than the extra days the DOJ granted. They have reason to avail these desperate, exotic maneuvers: Murphy is up by 25 and the absentee ballots aren't breaking the way they expected. The challenged ballots will probably wind up in court, and win for Tedisco, if not the election, the kind of warmth and affection commanded by that other post-electoral fighter for candidates' rights, Norm Coleman.