Politics & Government

Voting Machine Recanvass Gives Altschuler Lead; Bishop Calls for Hand Count

Republican challenger holds 392-vote lead following double check of Election Night numbers.

Both incumbent Rep. Tim Bishop, D - Southampton, and representatives of Republican challenger Randy Altschuler have recognized that a 3,853-vote swing due to a recanvass of electronic voting machines has given Altschuler a 392-vote lead following a preliminary Election Night vote count.

A "recanvass," according to Altschuler's press agent Rob Ryan and Bishop, is a manual check on the digitized numbers input through each electronic machine on Election Night. While the machines tally the votes of the ballots that go into them, sometimes human error comes into play when inputting those numbers into computers.

"That's one of the reasons we didn't concede," said Rob Ryan, Altschuler's senior communications manager."I've been through this a year ago."

Find out what's happening in Riverheadwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ryan, who worked in last year's 23rd Congressional District race, recalled that a recanvass resulted in a swing of about 2,000 votes.

A couple thousand votes though, Bishop noted, is nearly half the 3,853 votes that have swung to the other side of the pendulum. In Suffolk County's first general election using electronic machines, Bishop called into question the validity of the machines.

Find out what's happening in Riverheadwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Certainly this is unprecedented," Bishop said. "This suggests that we have a system that is not terribly reliable. I haven't spoken to anyone in the last several years who's been watching elections who has seen anything like this. If we had a couple here and a couple there and it rounded out to 1,500 or 2,000 votes that might be one thing. A 4,000-vote swing is unheard of."

Bishop added that the only way to get the count right may be to turn back the clock.

"Going forward, we're going to ask that all the ballots cast and set into the machine be counted by hand," he said. "All it does it take time. It doesn't change the outcome, and it ensures everybody's vote is counted for."

Absentee ballots have until Monday to arrive with the Suffolk County Board of Elections. As of Friday, the breakdown of ballots yet to be counted is as follows, according to Newsday:

  • Democrat - 3,611
  • Republican - 3,953
  • Independence - 303
  • Conservative - 243
  • Working Families - 12
  • Blank - 1,779

At Suffolk County Democratic Committee headquarters on Election Night, Bishop said in a speech to the crowd that he had won the absentee ballot count in his previous Congressional races. The four-term incumbent may need to win absentee ballots in upcoming weeks to win a fifth term.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here