10/05/2012 - Myclipp

The New York Times/ - Politics, Ter, 15 de Maio de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
New Twist in a March Senate Election
That’s Still Too Close to Call
It has been eight weeks since voters in South Brooklyn
cast their ballots for a short-term state senator in a
short-term district. Eight long weeks of accusations,
legal proceedings and ballot counting.On Monday,
when the final tally appeared to be in, the election still
did not end. After the last group of contested ballots
from the March 20 special election was counted, a
Republican, David Storobin, emerged with a 27-vote
lead over the Democratic candidate, City Councilman
Lewis A. Fidler. Now the race will go to a manual
recount, the first since New York City began using its
new scanning machines. Because Mr. Storobin’s
margin was less than one-half percent of the 22,137
votes cast, a hand recount is required under the rules
of the Board of Elections. The election is quickly
reaching a point of diminishing returns: the legislative
session in Albany is scheduled to end on June 21. And
the district will no longer exist as such as of January,
since legislative district lines have been redrawn. The
district’s previous senator, Carl Kruger, resigned,
pleaded guilty to corruption charges and has been
sentenced to seven years in prison. The first-of-its-kind
recount is likely to begin early next week, but the
Board of Elections could not provide a timetable for its
completion. Observers for both campaigns will oversee
the commissioners’ review of each paper ballot. It is
possible, a spokeswoman for the board said, that more
ballots than those already counted could be
discovered during the manual review of the machines.
“We’re going to fight this right down to the very end,”
said Frank V. Carone, a lawyer for Mr. Fidler. But Mr.
Storobin’s campaign called for Mr. Fidler to concede
the election. “It is clearly in the best interest of the
people of the district to have immediate
representation,” said David Simpson, a spokesman for
Mr. Storobin. “Any attempt by the Fidler campaign to
push for a recount would only delay the inevitable, at
further cost to the taxpayers.” The winter campaign
had already been a contentious and personal one. But
the real drama began on election night, when Mr.
Storobin held a 120-vote lead. At that point, some
absentee ballots and affidavits had not yet been
counted; later both campaigns took legal action over
some of those ballots. Mr. Storobin led through most of
the counting, although Mr. Fidler at one point took an
87-vote lead. That was before Justice Larry D. Martin
of State Supreme Court released another 119 ballots,
dismissing Mr. Fidler’s claim of fraud in the collection
of absentee ballots by a former campaign worker for
Mr. Storobin.
David G. Greenfield, a city councilman representing
Borough Park, Midwood and Flatbush, found some
meaning in the protracted battle. “The best thing to
come out of this Fidler/Storobin race is the manual
recount,” he wrote Monday on his Twitter account.
“Finally, we will know if these new electronic machines
work!”
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