By Colin Campbell 4/10/12 8:44am

brooklyn's florida

Lew Fidler (Photo: Facebook)

Fidler Sees Multiple Reasons to Be Optimistic

Democratic State Senate candidate Lew Fidler is locked in a tight process of counting the final absentee and provisional votes from a March 20th special election, and over Facebook, he outlined both his specific path to victory and held out hope that the gerrymandered State Senate lines will still be thrown back to the drawing board. Currently, Mr. Fidler’s Republican opponent, David Storobin, leads by 3 votes.

First, Mr. Fidler articulated why he thinks he’ll ultimately be up in the count when the court opens all of the ballots not alleged to be fraudulent, a process that will begin with another hearing tomorrow. Read More

By Colin Campbell 4/03/12 12:34pm

brooklyn's florida

Lew Fidler and David Storobin

Storobin Now Leads by 2

More ballots were opened for the March 20th State Senate special election this afternoon, and Republican candidate David Storobin doubled his margin … to two votes, multiple tipsters told The Politicker.

The latest gain comes from absentee and provisional ballots where the respective campaigns withdrew their objections. 41 ballots were counted in total, with 21 going to Mr. Storobin and 20 going to his Democratic opponent, Lew Fidler. Read More

By Colin Campbell 4/02/12 8:37am

brooklyn's florida

Lew Fidler and David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

Judge to Review Brooklyn Special Election

At the end of last week, lawyers representing the two candidates in the special election to replace Carl Kruger in the State Senate agreed to a court proceeding to resolve which candidate ultimately received more votes. Republican candidate David Storobin is currently leading by a single vote, but Democrat Lew Fidler is feeling confident.

The judge has appointed two “Special Referees” to hear ballot objections made by both sides on the contested absentee votes (i.e. one campaign may believe signature similarity on certain ballots indicates the votes were fraudulent). Read More

By Colin Campbell 3/30/12 12:48pm

brooklyn's florida

Both campaigns had declared victory last week, but who really won?

David Storobin Now Leads By 1

The latest turn in the special election to replace Carl Kruger in the State Senate has given the Republican candidate, David Storobin, a gigantic lead of one vote over his Democratic opponent Lew Fidler, multiple tipsters told The Politicker.

Contrary to what both of the campaigns had reported, the final result last night was actually a tie, a symbolic number in what has been a grueling race.

And, with all of the invalid absentee and provisional ballots finished being reviewed and contested today, Mr. Storobin’s lead has hopped up to that single point. Read More

By Colin Campbell 3/30/12 7:44am

brooklyn's florida

Both campaigns also declared victory last week. (Photo: Facebook)

Fidler and Storobin Spin The Results

With Democrat Lew Fidler taking a three-vote lead yesterday (or possibly no lead at all) after the uncontested absentee and provisional ballots were counted in the special election to replace corrupt former State Senator Carl Kruger, things appear very tight indeed.

Both campaigns sent out statements, which you can view below, and both are expressing confidence while accusing the other of ethnic discrimination in their ballot challenges. Read More

By Colin Campbell 3/29/12 1:10pm

getting closer

Councilman Fidler (Photo: Facebook)

Storobin Leads by 10 As Ballots Are Contested on Both Sides

Things are getting tense at the Board of Elections office in Brooklyn today where the count of absentee and provisional ballots from last week’s State Senate special election continues to progress, and the Democratic candidate, Lew Fidler, has narrowed his deficit to only 10 votes and is reasonably likely to be leading at the end of the day.

However, the campaigns of both Mr. Fidler and the Republican candidate, David Storobin, are contesting ballots initially ruled valid, causing those votes to be temporarily set aside until all of the uncontested votes have finished being counted. Read More

By Colin Campbell 3/28/12 5:25pm

hijinks?

A photo of challenged ballots provided by Mr. Storobin's campaign

Storobin Accuses Fidler of Strategic Challenges to Temporary Shift Tally [Update]

As absentee ballots were being counted today for last week’s State Senate special election, both campaigns had the opportunity to challenge ballots initially ruled valid, causing those votes to be set aside for later evaluation in a fairly normal procedural process. However, in a statement blasted out this evening, the campaign of the Republican candidate, David Storobin, charged that operatives working for the Democratic candidate, Lew Fidler, were systemically gaming the count by targeting ballots with Russian names on them (Mr. Storobin is himself a Russian immigrant).

Although the total number of challenges from both side are not immediately available, it is generally true that if one campaign challenges many more ballots than the other, it creates an appearance of a larger lead than reality, which sets in when many or most of those contested ballots are confirmed to be valid and returned to the count after the uncontested votes have finished being tallied. Read More

By Colin Campbell 3/28/12 4:45pm

a very special election

David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

Storobin Currently Leads by 37

As the first day of counting absentee votes in last week’s special election to replace corrupt former State Senator Carl Kruger came to a close this evening, Republican candidate David Storobin led Democratic Lew Fidler by just 37 votes, a source familiar with the situation told The Politicker.

When the process convened for a lunch break earlier this afternoon, Mr. Storobin’s lead had dropped from his Election Day total of 119 to 62.

Only 296 votes have been counted, about half of the 757 valid absentee votes when one takes into account that some valid votes were contested and placed aside for the moment. Additionally, hundreds more ballots initially ruled to be invalid are out there for both campaigns to contest, some of which are likely to be brought back into play. Read More