Bishop Reportedly Makes More Gains on 2nd Day of Absentee Counts

After the second day of counting absentee ballot counts in the First Congressional District race, votes reportedly continued to sway in favor of Rep. Tim Bishop, D - Southampton. The spokesman for Republican challenger Randy Altschuler, Rob Ryan, said that , Bishop has cut his lead by 100 votes. Altschuler remains 283 votes up.

Jon Schneider, Bishop's spokesman was hopeful beyond the 100-vote gain, considering that 24 out of 30 election districts counted yesterday, and more on Tuesday, came from Altschuler's hometowm, Smithtown. Six more election districts remain to be counted in Smithtown. The First Congressional District holds 480 election districts in total.

"The fact that we're chipping away at his lead and have essentially done that while moving through Randy's strongest town is an encouraging sign for us," said Schneider.

After counting ballots on two tables yesterday, election workers in Yaphank added several counting tables today, said Ryan. The process of counting over 11,000 absentee and affidavit ballots isn't expected to be complete until early next week.

"This will be going up and down," said Ryan. "That's usually how these things work."

Officials with the Board of Elections noted no problems during Tuesday's audit of electronic voting machines.

Check back later for a complete update on Tuesday's absentee ballot count.