With only a few affidavit ballots to count, the final tally is going to come down to what happens in court. Padavan's lead has gone from the seven hundreds, to the four hundreds, back to the seven hundreds and now somewhere in the five hundreds. Nearly two thousand ballots must be examined and how that turns out is ultimately up to a bunch of lawyers and a judge.
From The Daily Politics:
The players in the fight over the 11th SD recount - now almost a full month old - are due back in court at 2 p.m. this afternoon, and the focus has now shifted to some 1,750 to 2,000 ballots that were ruled invalidated by the Board of Elections back before the recanvass began.
If you ask the Democrats, this is a perfectly reasonable request and to deny it would be a move to disenfranchise voters and an act of desperation by the other side, which wants the recount to end while incumbent GOP Sen. Frank Padavan is 580 votes ahead with just 252 paper ballots left in the so-called "box."
The Republicans, of course, say it's completely out-of-the-ordinary move and a desperate, hail-Mary measure by the Democrats who know their candidate, Coundilman Jim Gennaro, is unlikely to win.
Obviously there is plenty of politics on the side for the media and blogs (myself included) to lap up. While the Republicans currently have the lead, like I've said before, nothing is set in stone and until everything is examined, the winner is still unknown. There's plenty more drama in Liz's story, so have fun with that...I just wish they'd count the ballots that show the voters who intended to go for Jim or Frank, add em' up and let us know already.
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