Absentee ballots in play in the 22nd Congressional District Race

Absentee ballots in play in the 22nd Congressional District Race

Former Congresswoman Claudia Tenney is holding the lead over incumbent Anthony Brindisi, but with thousands of absentee ballots to still be counted, it's too early to call.

22nd congressional district.

Former congress woman claudia tenney holding the lead over incumbent anthony brindisi... but with absentee ballots... it's still too early to call.

News channel 2's caitlin irla is following this story.

She tells us how many absentee ballots are expected to be added next week.

Good evening jason, the latest results show that incumbent anthony brindisi is trailing behind former congresswoman claudia tenney by about 28 thousand votes.

But -- there are still a lot of absentee ballots at play.... and let's not forget that absentee ballots decided this race two years ago.

The 22nd congressional district covers all of oneida, madison, chenango, and cortland counties... as well as parts of herkimer, oswego, tioga, and broome counties.

We spoke with utica college political science professor luke perry, who has been following this race closely.

He says in the 22nd congressional district, about 68 thousand absentee ballots were sent out... and close to 45 thousand have been returned so far.

Perry says even with outstanding absentee ballots, brindisi's path to victory is going to be difficult.

"i think the vote total so far shows that claudia tenney has been able to cut into brindisi's advantage in broome county and extend her margins in the more rural counties that are more conservative and favor her so i think those two things help explain her success to this point."

"i would say brindisi is on the ropes though he needs to make up about a 28 thousand gap that tenney is ahead so he needs those absentees to come in at a high percentage and he needs to win them at a high percentage to squeak this out."

In 2018... 14 thousand absentee ballots were returned... and the race wasn't called until 2 weeks after election day.

Absentee ballots will still be coming in until november 10th and will be counted as long as they are postmarked by november 3rd.

Jason, back to you.

We have local election results at wktv.com.

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