Altschuler ’93 awaits final election result

Absentee and affidavit ballot counting began Tuesday. Through the first day of counting, Altschuler leads by 356 votes, according to his spokesman, Rob Ryan.

While Ryan said the final result will likely not be determined until after Thanksgiving, he said the candidate remains confident.

“Traditionally absentees follow the trend of the election,” Ryan noted.

Bishop was reported to lead Altschuler by more than 3,000 votes on election night, before tabulation errors were discovered. Bishop requested a hand recount of all 185,000 ballots at Suffolk County’s Supreme Court last Tuesday.

But before a hand recount might be called, an audit of 3 percent of electronic voting machines is underway.

“The judge told [Bishop], come back with whatever evidence they had of problems,” Ryan said. If a 3 percent audit shows problems, a second audit checking 5 percent will take place.

So far, roughly half of the 43 machines tested have shown no problems, Ryan said.

Absentee ballots from both Southampton and Smithton, Altschuler’s hometown, were counted on the first day, showing small gains for Bishop.

“We lost about 27 votes [Tuesday], but that was coming out of Bishop’s strong area, so we remain confident,” Ryan said.

Jon Schneider, a spokesman for Bishop, also had a positive spin on the results in an interview with The Bayport-Blue Point Patch.

“From our perspective, to gain votes in a day where we did so much in Smithtown is a good day for us,” Schneider said.

Some controversy has also arisen over the Altschuler campaign’s flagging of absentee ballots mailed out of state.

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“We put in paperwork saying we may — not that we’re definitely going to challenge — we may challenge these ballots as the race progresses,” Ryan explained. “This is the normal course of action in the race at this time.”

In response, Bishop has characterized Altschuler’s campaign as unfairly challenging absentee residents, specifying his father, who mailed a ballot from Florida, in a fundraising plea Wednesday.

“My father is about to be 87 and quite infirm,” he said in an interview with The Ballot Box. “So for my opponent or the people working for my opponent to deny him the right to vote in general and specifically the right to vote for me, I just think it’s despicable.”

Ryan said Bishop’s actions are “basically silly on the congressman’s part.”

Remaining absentee ballots, including those from members of the military, are slated to be counted later this month.