Kirsten Gillibrand gets a vote in the U.S. Senate, but Republicans are hoping to invalidate her ballot in the race that will decide her replacement in the House of Representatives.

Poll watchers for Republican congressional candidate Jim Tedisco challenged Gillibrand’s absentee ballot when it showed up in the queue during counting in Columbia County. The campaign worker argued the senator who splits her time between Greenport and Washington, D.C. was in the county on Election Day and should have voted in person.

“The challenge is frivolous and without merit,” said Gillibrand spokesman Matt Canter. “It seems to be part of a larger attempt to disenfranchise voters and delay a Democratic victory in the 20th Congressional District.”

Gillibrand was at Scott Murphy’s side in the district on Election Day, but joined him in Saratoga Springs after the polls were closed.

The challenge one of hundreds the Republicans have made in Columbia County alone is an example of what’s shaping up as a slugfest over absentee ballots.

“When you’re involved in hand-to-hand combat, you make all the challenges you think are necessary,” said Jerry Goldfeder, a veteran of poll wars and the author of “Goldfeder’s Modern Election Law.”

Election law requires only that a person applying for the absentee ballot must have a “good-faith belief” that they won’t be in the district on the day of the election, Goldfeder said.

While challenging Gillibrand’s ballot may have raised eyebrows around the district, the Republicans are unyielding.

“Representatives from the campaign are raising concerns on those ballots that may have been improperly cast, regardless of who they belong to,” said Tyler Brown, a Tedisco campaign spokesman.

Larry Bulman, the chairman of the Saratoga County Democratic Committee, accused Republicans of challenging three groups in particular: the disabled, students and seniors.

Bulman said he witnessed a Republican poll watcher object to a ballot from a 91-year-old voter because she wrote on her absentee ballot application she was “too old” to vote in person.

Especially in the southern part of the district, Republicans have focused on voters who split their time between a home in the 20th and a home outside the district. If the Republicans have evidence a voter lives in a rent-stabilized apartment, they are challenging the voter’s ballot.

John Ciampoli, a lawyer for the state GOP, said the lease for a rent-stabilized apartment proves his case by asking the tenant to declare it to be his or her primary residence.

But Arthur Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that’s comparing apples and oranges.

“What these potential voters may have done in these (rental) documents is declare that their New York City apartment is their primary residence,” he said. “But that doesn’t speak to the constitutional question of where they’re allowed to vote.”

A Tuesday-afternoon update to the state Board of Election’s Web site showed Murphy up by 47 votes, 77,982 to 77,935.

Source: Times Union Continue Reading This Article Here