Lawyers Get Into the Act in NY 20 Race

The outcome of New York’s 20th District special election is likely to come down to a handful of ballots, so both sides are signing up legal help to ensure their votes get counted.
Democrat Scott Murphy, who led Republican Jim Tedisco by a 25-vote margin as of Wednesday night, has brought on election law attorney Henry Berger to lead his campaign’s legal efforts, a Democratic aide told CQ Politics.
“I’m told that this guy is the ultimate … ‘take no prisoners’ election lawyer in the state of New York,” said the aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record on the matter.
Berger is a member of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council and has represented President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she was as a senator, as well as Sen. John F. Kerry, and Vice President Al Gore.
The Tedisco campaign has also assembled a legal team, said campaign adviser Howard Decker.
“The campaign is happy to be receiving assistance from local attorneys as we move towards Monday and beyond and will continue to receive guidance from the National Republican Campaign Committee should future legal issues arise,” Decker said.
NRCC spokesman Paul Lindsey confirmed it was providing Tedisco “the usual level of legal support that is necessary to ensure the integrity of this election process.”
The New York Republican Party has also entered the legal fray, petitioning March 31 to impound all paper ballots in the district — including all absentee ballots — for further review. The Dutchess County Supreme Court acquiesced, and will hold a hearing April 6 to establish a process for reviewing and canvassing those ballots.
Representing the party on the petition was John Ciampoli, counsel for the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee and a member of the National Republican Lawyers Association. Ciampoli also represented the Dutchess County Conservative Party in its efforts to remove Libertarian candidate Eric Sundwall from the ballot.
Until the April 6 hearing, the main job for both sides’ election attorneys will be gathering information and monitoring the re-canvassing process. New York election law requires an automatic canvass and re-canvass of all election machine totals, said Robert Brehm, deputy director of public information for the state board of Elections.
A number of the 10 counties that make up the upstate 20th District have begun reviewing those totals, with the rest scheduled to re-canvass over the next few days. Saratoga, the district’s most populous county, begins its review process on Friday.
As this process plays out, the election totals for both candidates are bound to fluctuate.
Ultimately, the race will come down to absentee ballots, which could number as many as 10,000. The deadline by which the counties must receive absentee ballots is April 6. For military and overseas ballots, the deadline is April 13.

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