Thursday, November 12, 2009

New York State Board of Elections Statement Today Raises Questions About Legitimacy of House Health Care Vote on Saturday

On Saturday night, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Nancy Pelosi backed health care takeover bill, 220-215.

News today from a spokesperson for the New York State Board of Election that it's still too close to certify the victor in last week's special election in New York's 23rd Congressional District now calls into question the moral legitimacy of that vote, if not the actual legal legitimacy.

Bill Owens, the Democrat, held about a 5,000 vote lead with 93% of the vote when Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded at about midnight on election night. Now, due to certain voting irregularities exposed during the re-canvas, the raw vote total differential has declined to about 3,000. In addition, about 10,000 absentee ballots have not been counted.

The New York State Board of Election will not be able to certify a victor in that race until mid-December now, apparently.

How then, was Bill Owens able to cast one of the 220 votes in favor of the 1,900 page Pelosi health care travesty on Saturday?

It turns out that Hoffman's early concession allowed Owens to be sworn in.

And while the odds are very long indeed against a reversal of the final results when all votes are tallied by the New York State Board of Elections in mid-December, it seems highly quesitonable that the outcome of such a critical piece of legislation appears to have been influenced by a vote cast by a candidate who we're not 100 per cent certain was elected by the voters in the 23rd Congressional District.

It all just smells a little too much of dirty Chicago politics and banana republic antics.

Hope and change indeed.

No comments: