Skoufis and Ryan widen election leads and Eachus pulls ahead after Orange counts absentees

Rep. Pat Ryan and state Sen. James Skoufis have expanded narrow victory margins over Republican opponents with the counting of absentee ballots received by mail after the Nov. 8 election, including hundreds tallied in Orange County on Thursday.

Ryan, the Democrat who beat Colin Schmitt in the 18th District race, had led by 2,071 on election night and made net gains of 211 in Orange and 478 in Ulster County as of Thursday, with more votes still to be counted. Skoufis expanded his 1,170-vote lead over Dorey Houle in the 42nd Senate District race by 221 after the absentee tally in Orange.

That absentee counting also pushed fellow Democrat Chris Eachus ahead of Republican Kathryn Luciani in an Assembly race she had led by just 56 votes. Eachus, a former Orange County legislator seeking the 99th District seat Schmitt is vacating, held a three-vote lead in the updated tallies.

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Still to be counted in all three close races are affidavits cast in Orange by voters who couldn't cast regular ballots when they went to the polls on Nov. 8 because they weren't listed in registration records. The Board of Elections plans to count those votes on Nov. 28 after determining which voters were mistakenly omitted and entitled to vote and whose votes should be discarded because they were unregistered.

In addition, the final results of the 18th Congressional District race await the addition of Ulster County's last ballot tally on Friday. It was unclear on Friday if all votes had been counted yet in Dutchess County, where Ryan had added 537 votes to his election-night lead.

What cleared the way for the counting in Orange on Thursday was a ruling in a lawsuit Houle brought to temporarily freeze the tallying of absentees and affidavits after the election. Her attorney was challenging a state law that sped that counting by letting it proceed without campaign lawyers contesting the validity of votes likely to go to the other side − an old tactic in close races in New York.

Houle's suit had prompted Skoufis and Orange County Democratic Chairman Zak Constantine to accuse her of "election denialism," akin to Donald Trump's groundless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Constantine cheered the decision by acting state Supreme Court Justice Craig Brown that allowed the county to resume counting.

"Orange County completed a vigorous and competitive election day that we can all be proud of, but certification of results has been stalled in every local race due to this baseless lawsuit," he said in a statement. "Contrary to her claim of wanting to ‘count every ballot’, Ms. Houle’s suit would exclude lawful votes."

Houle responded Friday that she wasn't questioning the result and doubted she will overtake Skoufis when the county tallies the 1,536 affidavit ballots in her race − or what remains of them after the ballots of unregistered voters are tossed. She does expect to narrow the margin and thinks it could get close enough to trigger a recount.

"I'm not denying the outcome of this election," she said. "I'm just making sure that every vote gets counted."

Her attorney, John Ciampoli, criticized the state law streamlining the ballot counting, which he said unfairly removed the rights of candidates and others to study them and pose objections before they are opened and counted. He argued the Democratic-led Legislature passed the law to help Democrats win, since absentee ballots have favored Democrats in the last few elections.

"Obviously, we feel very strongly that it's improper," he said.

The 2021 law required county election boards to scan absentee ballots on a rolling basis as soon they are delivered before the election, rather than waiting until after the polls close on election night. Under that new system, teams of election workers from both parties judge the validity all absentee and affidavit ballots and set aside any that both sides deem invalid, giving voters a chance to correct any technical defects.

Editor's note: this story has been corrected to reflect the latest vote counts in the 99th Assembly District race.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@th-record.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Pat Ryan, James Skoufis election leads grow in close races