Padavan lead grows

BY VICTOR G. MIMONI

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 8:51 PM EST

With only 1,245 paper ballots remaining to be examined, Republican State Senator Frank Padavan has increased his lead over challenger, Democrat City Councilmember James Gennaro to its highest since the tallies were first reported on Election Day.

Shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Monday, November 24, Board of Elections (BOE) workers and attorneys for the Parties went home for the night, with only 56 ballots remaining to be counted from the 26th Assembly District, according to a source witnessing the count.

“It’s going a little faster,” said the Republican source, speculating,” At this rate, we could be done by Saturday [November 29].”

Democrats took the opposite view.

“The Republican lawyers’ constant challenge of the legitimate ballots of minority voters has delayed the process considerably,” said Austin Shafran, a spokesperson for Gennaro’s campaign.

On Monday night, a total of 217 ballots had been disputed. At the end of the counting, if there is any possibility that the ballots in the “court box” could affect the outcome, a judge will rule on the validity of those ballots on a case-by-case basis.

As of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, there were still approximately 50 paper ballots remaining in the 26th Assembly Districts which had not been counted, according to a Democratic source in the room where the count is taking place.

The remaining absentee and affidavit ballots come from Electoral Districts in the 27th, 29th and 33rd Assembly Districts that are part of the 11th Senatorial District, which Padavan has represented for 18 terms.

“We have to wait until the end of the count,” Padavan said on Tuesday, “But it’s moving in the right direction.”

Slightly more than 2,000 of the paper affidavit ballots were initially discarded by decision of the Democrat and Republican BOE Clerks.

“There are some ballots which were initially ruled as invalid, that we feel are valid,” the Democratic source said, suggesting the possibility of a court challenge by Democrats to have some or all of them included, if Padavan prevails.

“No matter what the outcome,” said Democratic spokesperson Evan Stavisky, “It is clear that the winner of this election will have the slimmest of margins - a small fraction of one percent.”