2020 election

Legal observers say the question of whether to count mail-in ballots with handwritten dating errors is still open.

It’s unclear just how many hundreds of challenge ballots there are, but with only 12 votes separating the candidates, the court’s rulings on them might determine the race’s outcome.

“The role of the court, as I see it, is making sure everyone follows the law,” Justice Scott DelConte said during oral arguments Monday.

It is the only House race in New York that is still uncalled.

With more than 19,000 mail-in ballots returned to Broome County this year, there were bound to be a few errors. In those cases, election workers were tasked with curing the ballot.

Brindisi has won close to three times the number of mail-in ballots than Tenney, steadily closing the gap between them.

Van De Water said he looks forward to a rematch in 2022.

Both candidates believe their opponents lead is too large to overcome.

Tenney is up by 28,000 votes in NY-22. So far, at least 57,900 absentee ballots have been returned throughout the district.

“It leaves all of these holes in the implementation of the law where you might have disenfranchisement strictly based off of the ability for the county to interpret a law really loosely.”