NY-1 absentee count seesaw: Tim Bishop leads by 14, then down by 10 to Randy Altschuler, now up by 17 and it’ll be different by the end of the day

By Sam Foster

The race in NY-1 is so close, that the leader has been changing back and forth all day and never above a double digit margin.

Tim Bishop started the day with a 14 vote lead as officials resumed counting the remaining precincts in Brookhaven, NY this morning.  By 10:30 am, NRO was reporting that Randy Altschuler had retaken the lead with 10 votes.  At noon, Time Beacon Record had Tim Bishop over Altschuler by 17.

I'll keep with the coverage and hopefully be able to provide you with the final situation at the end of the day.  

There are of course several other factors to consider:

First of all, Randy Altschuler has challenged far more ballots than Tim Bishop.  The Bishop campaign claims that most, if not all, these challenges will be overturned in court.

More significant than the slim lead is the growing disparity in the number of ballots challenged, said Schneider, who Monday noon put those numbers at 797 challenges by Altschuler and 567 challenges by Bishop. Schneider expects most of the challenges to be dismissed eventually and the ballots added to the candidates' respective totals.

Randy Altschuler claims that he carried 91% of the Brookhaven precincts on Election Day.  Thus the final precincts to be counted could be Altschuler votes.

Finally, there is supposed to be a bit of recanvassing completed today and could send some votes one way or another.

Check back for more updates…