Doug Hoffman may still win New York 23

  This is an interesting story that I first learned about on rjjrdq’s America. It seems that while Doug Hoffman conceded defeat in the much publicized New York 23 congressional race to Bill Owens and while Owens was subsequently hurried to Washington DC in order to vote for the healthcare reform bill that Doug Hoffman might end up winning this race after all. Doug Hoffman may have conceded prematurely.

  The votes are still being counted and the race has tightened up quite a bit. Hoffman conceded after he received two pieces of news that made his prospects look dim.

Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County.

  However, this news turned out not to be true and Hoffman now trails Owens by only 3,000 votes with 10,000 absentees votes yet to be counted. This is where this story gets a little murky. The state of New York sent Nancy Pelosi a letter that stated the New York election results have not been certified but because Hoffman conceded that means the election is not contested. This allowed Nancy Pelosi to legally swear in Bill Owens.

  If it turns out that Hoffman wins this election, and it is highly unlikely, Bill Owens will be removed from congress and Hoffman will be sworn in, but the damage has already been done. Hoffman should have held out to the very end and then contested the election, this would have prevented Owens from making it to Washington in time to vote in favor of the healthcare reform bill while the votes were still being counted. That is what would have happened if the situation was reversed; we saw a perfect example of this in the Franken/Coleman election where Franken eventually was allowed to steal the election from the rightful winner.