The Broadway Democrats. (Photo: broadwaydemocrats.org)

Members of the Broadway Democrats, one of the Upper West Side's most influential political clubs, are at odds over their endorsement of John Liu for mayor.

The club's endorsements process spun into minor chaos late last night when members were forced to complete their counting in the club's president's home. Then, early this morning, a member realized the club had miscounted the ballots because of a misinterpretation of the club's run-off procedures--forcing a re-count that gave the city's comptroller a victory.

"Some people are not accepting that and will be challenging that," said Curtis Arluck, the local assembly seat's male district leader, describing the fallout from the vote, which comes just over a week after Mr. Liu's former campaign treasurer and a top fundraiser were found guilty of campaign finance fraud.

The problems began around 10 p.m. when a longer-than-expected meeting forced club leadership to change locations and count the remaining ballots at club president Gretchen Borges' home.

During the club's first round of tallies, Mr. Liu received 31 votes, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn received 22, Mr. de Blasio 13 and former Comptroller Bill Thompson 4. Because no candidate received a majority, the club began an automatic run-off count, tallying voters' second and third-place choices to determine a victor.

But when the club was left with two finalists, City Council Speaker Christine and Mr. Liu, they stopped. Mr. Liu had the most, with 35 votes, but not the majority of the 71 cast he needed to win. The club determined it would make no endorsement for mayor in the race and members went to sleep.

But early in the morning, the clubs' Female District Leader, Liu supporter Paula Diamond Román, said she discovered they'd actually made a mistake. Per "Article VIII" of the club's constitution, the counters were supposed to have finished tallying up votes until they were left with a single candidate.

Members who were available--both Liu and non-Liu supporters--returned to Ms. Borges' house to continue counting. In the end, Mr. Liu came out with 42--or 59.2 percent. Of the 71 ballots, 29 offered no endorsement instead of choosing Ms. Quinn.

But the confusion left some members fuming and questioning whether the ballots could have been tampered with, leaders said.

"The process of having the votes here without anyone but me and the votes have left some people distraught that there’s an opportunity for mischief," said Ms. Borges, who said the district's assemblyman, Daniel O'Donnell, was especially upset.

But she and Ms. Diamond Román blamed the mix-up on innocent confusion over a new, complicated voting system that no one really understood.

"This is not our first choice of how this would have gone," she said.

Ms. Borges said she understood the concern from members and apologized for the snafu.

“It's not the deal way to do things. Yes, we should have known what we were doing before that night .... So there’s some culpability, no doubt about that."

Mr. Liu's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Donovan Richards

Flanked by a coterie of elected officials, Donovan Richards declared victory last night in a wide-open, eight-way Queens City Council special election. Seven miles south, Pesach Osina did the same exact thing.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Richards leads Mr. Osina by just 26 votes, easily making the 31st District race too close for observers to call. Vote counting ceased at midnight and will resume today, but at last glance, Mr. Richards had 2,513 votes to Mr. Osina's 2,487. In addition to a potentially missing memory stick from a ballot scanner, absentee and paper ballots still need to be counted. A recount is also likely, but each candidate acted like the undisputed victors nevertheless.

"I'm calling on the community tonight to put aside their differences. Those who ran in this election, let's not be bitter against each other," Mr. Richards said at a bustling lounge in Laurelton, Queens. "If you are really for the community, if you are truly for the community, whether it is the Orthodox Jewish community, whether it is the African-American community, whether it is the Jamaican community, whether it is the Haitian community, whether it is our white brothers and sisters, I am calling on you to get your hands dirty and get in here. And let's make sure we are not losing young people to this gun violence on these streets."

"And let's stop the foolish conversation of two councilmen in the district. The numbers do not lie, we've seen the numbers, we have declared victory tonight, we are victorious and we are ready to march on," Mr. Richards later added.

For his part, Mr. Osina declared victory even before Mr. Richards did.

"While we are still uncertain of the total numbers, when every vote is counted, we will be victorious," Mr. Osina told his supporters. "This was an honest, fair race and I would like to thank my opponents for everything they have done on behalf of the community."

The race grew heated when a fiery clergyman, Bishop Charles Norris, controversially called for several of the black candidates to step aside in the race so Mr. Osina, the only white and Jewish contender, would not win. The district, which includes an Orthodox Jewish enclave in Far Rockaway, is 68 percent black and Mr. Norris quite bluntly argued that Mr. Osina, a former staffer to Queens Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder, could not serve its needs. None heeded his call, however, and the district's Jewish community rallied around Mr. Osina in response. Their ambitious get-out-the-vote effort, which included a roving sound truck playing Hebrew-language songs on Mr. Osina's behalf, seemed to pay off, matching Mr. Richards's superior fundraising and bevy of labor endorsements.

An automatic recount is mandated by state law if the final margin is less than 0.5 percent of the total vote. As of this writing, that would mean approximately 41 votes, although the number is subject to change as absentee and affidavit ballots are tabulated, or if the occasionally unpredictable Board of Elections further adjusts the final number.

New York City politicos may remember a similarly heated situation last year when Brooklyn State Senate candidates Lew Fidler and David Storobin both declared victory in their own special election. In that race, after 22,000 votes cast and multiple months of counting and litigation, Mr. Storobin prevailed by a mere 13 votes. Time will tell if Mr. Osina and Mr. Richards face that level of drama, but regardless, whoever wins will have only a short time in office before having to face the voters again in the city's regularly scheduled September primary.

Additional reporting by Colin Campbell.

"BOE found more paper ballots on floor. Cool!" the Espaillat campaign's spokesman tweeted Friday evening.

State Senator Adriano Espaillat certainly can't be be accused of sitting down after his reported loss to veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel in last Tuesday's Democratic primary. As Mr. Rangel's lead whittled down to just 802 votes over the weekend, the Espaillat campaign hired election law guru Marty Connor and promoted a hotline available for voters to register complaints about Election Day shenanigans. A State Supreme Court will hear an injunction request from Mr. Espaillat today and the Board of Elections will start counting more than 2,000 affidavit ballots Thursday morning.

“As the New York State Supreme Court considers the serious voting-access and counting issues in the 13th Congressional District election, we are pleased to welcome Marty Connor to lead our legal team,” Mr. Espaillat's spokesman, Ibrahim Khan, said in a press release. “Our campaign will continue to push for every vote to be counted in a transparent and democratic process.”

And Mr. Connor, a former Minority Leader of the New York State Senate, certainly has experience in close elections. He was recently the lead lawyer for Lew Fidler's ultimately unsuccessful state senate campaign where the winning margin was a mere 13 votes.

Mr. Espaillat's campaign also made a statement available from the Dominican American National Roundtable, which called for the U.S. Department of Justice to step in and monitor the proceedings and provided a hotline available for individuals to share anecdotes of voter suppression. Mr. Espaillat, who would be the first Dominican American congressman if elected, had his largest base of support in the Dominican community.

“As a national organization that closely monitors public affairs in the Latino community, in general, and the Dominican Community, in particular, we have witnessed disturbing allegations of voter suppression and lack of transparency in the 13th Congressional District election,” Dr. Maria Teresa Montilla, the organization's president, said. “We are calling on the United States Department of Justice to take immediate action to monitor the Board of Elections’ proceedings and resolve issues that threaten the constitutionally guaranteed voting rights of all Americans. We are also appealing to any voters who encountered any barriers to the ballot box, including misinformation and lack of interpretation services, to call-in to a voter hotline we have established and help us document voter suppression complaints.”

For its part, Mr. Rangel's campaign has maintained confidence that their candidate will be returning to Washington next year. This is a fairly rational position as that 802-vote margin will be a very tall order for Mr. Espaillat to make up.

David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

More than two months after the voters cast their ballots in the race to replace Carl Kruger in the State Senate has finally come to a close. The Republican candidate, David Storobin, has won.

"All the votes are in, disputed and otherwise. The count is fully over. David Storobin won by 16 votes," Mr. Storobin's campaign wrote on his Facebook page. " The election will be officially certified on Tuesday at 1:30 pm, but there will be NO MORE counting. David Storobin is the new Senator!"

And, in a lengthy statement sent out by the Democrat in the race, Lew Fidler, Mr. Fidler conceded the race while maintaining that he felt Mr. Storobin's campaign should not have won under New York State election law.

"I guess I am simply not destined to be the Mayor of Mooseport,"  he wrote. "There are many ways to serve. The voters have spoken and I am sure that G-d has a plan for me. I look forward to unfolding it with you."

View Mr. Fidler's full statement below.

First, let me begin by saying “what a long strange trip it has been been,” and by offering my congratulations to David Storobin. In whatever time he may spend as the Senator from the 27th district, I pledge to work with him for the benefit of our community whenever and wherever we can find common ground.

There are so many thoughts that one would want to express after this surreal experience. I will address those that my sensibilities say should be expressed and leave other thoughts for another day.

First and foremost, I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to the hundreds of people who worked their hearts out in this effort, and to the thousands who showed their support at the polls or in some other way. In an election that was this nasty, this hard fought – and this long – I am left with a choice: to dwell on the disappointment of falling a handful of votes short, or to focus on the faith and commitment that so many showed by believing in me and what I have stood for during my years in public service. I said on election night before we knew the outcome: I was already a winner for the support and love that was shown to me by so many.

I also take a great deal of solace in knowing that in the areas of the 27th Senate District that cover my existing Council district, I received overwhelming support from the voters. That is most gratifying.

Of course, I am disappointed in the overall result and the many messages it may be sending about politics in our community and our borough.

I am also very troubled by a clear fallacy of the Election Law which enabled Mr. Storobin’s campaign to violate the law without repercussion. The court made clear that the Storobin campaign engaged in activity that was in violation of the law. New York State law simply does not permit early mail-in voting unless voters are legally qualified to vote early. Nonetheless, I have decided not to appeal the court’s decision. It is my feeling that the law simply does not provide the remedy of disenfranchising voters whose ballots were handled in such an improper manner and with such disregard for the law. But such violations of the Election Law must not continue. I urge the legislature to fix this loophole before the practices of the Storobin campaign become commonplace in future elections. Appealing the court’s decision, however, would only extend an already too long saga, at unnecessary cost to the taxpayers.

Since the polls closed on March 20th, I have continued to be hard at work as the Councilman for the 46th district, a job I love and will continue to do with all my zeal through the remainder of my term in office. I am at complete peace with the results of this election, satisfied that I can continue to be in a job that I love, enjoy the love of my wonderful wife and family, have the opportunity to continue my recovery from the serious health issue that afflicted me in the middle of the campaign and to serve the people of Brooklyn and New York.

There are way too many people to thank individually. Surely, I do have to single out my campaign manager Kalman Yeger and my wife Robin. Thanks to the hundreds of volunteers from the 41st AD Democrats Club (come down and join us on Avenue R), the TJ Club, The Highway, Progressive and Shorefront Clubs. To the Senate Democrats, the donors, the party leaders and elected officials who stood up for the cause, all too numerous to mention. To my terrific City Council staff and campaign team.

I want to say a special note of thanks to my supporters in both the Orthodox and Russian-speaking communities, many of whom took an enormous amount of unique grief for their ardent support. It will not be forgotten.

I look forward to the challenges ahead. I have spent my life in public service and have no intention of stopping that now. I guess I am simply not destined to be the Mayor of Mooseport. There are many ways to serve. The voters have spoken and I am sure that G-d has a plan for me. I look forward to unfolding it with you.

In the meanwhile, let’s get back to work on those citywide youth budget cuts.

Lew Fidler and David Storobin

After a brutal campaign and an even more brutal process of counting the absentee ballots, fending off a fraud lawsuit, and an automatic hand recount, Republican candidate David Storobin looks like he's finally set to become a state senator with a margin far narrower than what almost everybody literally predicted.

The Storobin campaign's unofficial count has their candidate up 14 with 8 disputed ballots after the recount basically finished last night. They said even the numbers belonging to the Democratic contender, Lew Fidler, had Mr. Storobin up 11 votes, so even if every contested ballot favored Mr. Fidler (which is not happening), there is no path left that does not lead to a Storobin victory.

For what it's worth, Mr. Fidler did manage to tangibly narrow Mr. Storobin's lead by about a dozen votes when the final precincts were recounted. However, it would seem the Fidler campaign needs the official certification process to deliver surprising results to have a chance, which is probably not happening.

In a conversation with the New York Daily News last night, Mr. Fidler's campaign manager, Kalman Yeger, simply advocated patience.

"With due respect to my friends at Team Storobin, the counting is concluded when the Board of Elections says it's concluded," Mr. Yeger said. "Both campaigns have been instructed by the Board of Elections to return on Wednesday for additional counting. We'll continue abiding by the Board's instructions until it has concluded its work."

Mr. Storobin himself told The Politicker he's looking to be sworn in as New York's newest state senator either later this week or early next one. It might be a short-lived experience, however, as the legislative session ends at the end of June and redistricting has yielded difficult reelection terrain for the Republican candidate.

David Storobin on March 20th, when things seemed so much simpler. (Photo: Hunter Walker)

After a painfully elongated process, it seems the special election to replace corrupt State Senator Carl Kruger is almost over. The hand recount of the 20,000 ballots cast on March 20th should be finished in the next day or two and the Republican candidate, David Storobin, is close to securing a win with an extremely narrow margin.

According to multiple Republican tipsters, the unofficial tally has Mr. Storobin ahead by 24 votes, and unless something drastic happens that causes the counting of the final 25% or so of the ballots to shift towards his Democratic rival, Lew Fidler, Mr. Storobin could definitively declare victory before the month is over.

As Mr. Fidler has challenged a couple more ballots than Mr. Storobin has, the latest margin doesn't represent any real improvement over the 27 he was down by at the start of the process. Although the new voting machines have reported some discrepancies from the Election Day tally, there does not seem to be much of a partisan lean to the errors, something Mr. Fidler would have needed to overcome his deficit.

However, even as Mr. Storobin prepares to go to Albany, he'll need to immediately hit the campaign trail hard. He has vowed to seek reelection in a substantially reconfigured district where former City Councilman Simcha Felder has emerged as a very strong contender for the seat on the Democratic line.

The counting begins again at the Board of Elections tomorrow.

Lew Fidler and David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

Republican David Storobin is currently on track to become a New York State Senator in the epic, never-ending special election to replace corrupt Senator -- and future inmate -- Carl Kruger. The votes, cast March 20th, have all been counted, but an automatic hand recount of all 20,000 ballots was triggered due to the closeness of the end count -- a lead by Mr. Storobin of 27 votes.

"So, they are 10% through with the first ever re canvass of paper ballots from the scanners," the Democratic candidate, Lew Fidler, wrote on Facebook last night, noting, however, that there is still some hope as the new voting machines did show variances with the original count even though the net margin did not change.

"While we still trail by 27 votes, there are discrepancies in the count so far. (The machines are therefore not perfect.)," he continued. "We are going to count all the votes and then the world will finally have the answer to the question that has burned since March 20th....who is the real Mayor of Mooseport?"

Because the legislative session ends in June, whoever the ultimate winner is will have limited time to actually legislate before facing reelection in a substantially different district. Thus, Mr. Storobin has been busy this week introducing himself to various community boards in southern Brooklyn, including the Boro Park-based CB12 last night and the Bay Ridge-based CB10 the evening prior (although the latter doesn't have much overlap with even the new district).

David Storobin declaring victory. (Photo: YouTube)

Republican David Storobin is currently ahead in the recount of last Tuesday's special election in Brooklyn, and at least some Democrats see a long-term advantage if his lead holds after all of the absentee ballots are counted later this week.

The advantage, the argument goes, is that due to redistricting, the district Mr. Storobin campaigned for is dismantled, and the new district Mr. Storobin has vowed to seek reelection in does not contain his base in the Russian community. Instead, the new district contains a very heavy Orthodox Jewish population, which would open the opportunity for Democrats to run a conservative, Orthodox Jewish candidate against him.

"[W]ithout Russians in the future Super Jewish district he would not be able to beat Jewish Orthodox Democrat," Democratic Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny explained on his Facebook wall. "So as a result of that in November ( 2012 general elections ) instead of gaining a seat by electing Jewish Orthodox Republican, Senate Republicans will lose a seat in the Senate."

Mr. Storobin performed strongly in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in last Tuesday's election, and, during the campaign, he touted his roots in Boro Park and Midwood, which will become the core of the new district, so he likely sees his electoral prospects differently than Mr. Brook-Krasny.

Regardless, Democratic and Republican plans could still be affected by the courts. While the redistricting lines for the State Senate have already been signed into law, there's at least one pending lawsuit that still has the potential to substantially shake things up and send the map back to the drawing board, perhaps enabling the Senate Republicans to draw a district more favorable to Mr. Storobin, should they desire.

Meanwhile, if Mr. Storobin's current Democratic opponent, Lew Fidler, pulls out a victory from last week's vote, his eventual options are limited. Mr. Fidler got trounced in the district's Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, so any plan to seek reelection to the State Senate would seem to necessarily involve challenging neighboring GOP State Senator Marty Golden instead.

David Storobin voting last Tuesday

At this moment, Republican candidate David Storobin has a 119 vote lead over his Democratic opponent Lew Fidler in last Tuesday's State Senate special election in Brooklyn, up one vote from yesterday, according to a source following the proceedings.

Write-in votes are currently being tabulated, but New York law does not allow write-in votes to be cast for candidates actually on the ballot, and they will not impact the margin between the two candidates.

What will affect the tally are the absentee ballots, which will start being counted next Wednesday.

The campaigns will both get a hint as to what that absentee total will contain later this afternoon when they receive a list of names and addresses of individuals who voted absentee in the election. Those can be compared to campaign contacts lists and voter registration rolls, which should be able to provide a rough estimate as to where the count will ultimately be headed.

In addition to the 757 valid absentee ballots, there are hundreds more invalid absentee ballots, some of which are likely to be successfully contested by the two campaigns. Furthermore, provisional ballots, which are usually given to voters who mistakenly think they're registered or accidentally vote from outside of the district, are unlikely to significantly affect the vote, but every little bit matters at this point.

Once all of this is said and done, which may take a while depending on how many legal roadblocks are thrown in the way of the tallying process, the magic number both campaigns have in their heads is 110, or 0.05% of the 22,000 total votes cast. If Mr. Storobin's lead falls below that number when the absentee votes are finished, there will be an automatic hand recount of all of the ballots in the race.

Needless to say, if that automatic recount happens, it might be a little while longer before either candidate enters the chambers of the State Senate as a member of that body.

Lew Fidler (Photo: Facebook)

The new margin between Republican candidate David Storobin and Democrat Lew Fidler is 118.

Although revisiting the voting machine memory sticks resulted in a slight expansion of Mr. Storobin's 120-vote lead on Election Night last Tuesday to 143, reconciling the differing reports this afternoon gave Mr. Fidler an additional 25 votes on his margin.

Counting the write-in ballots at the Board of Elections is set to begin in a few minutes, which may cause the gap to change again later today, depending on the speed the process moves forward.

Regardless, everyone following the race is most closely eyeing the 757 valid absentee ballots that will be counted next week, plus however many invalid absentee ballots will be successfully contested, to see if Mr. Fidler can ultimately overcome his deficit.

Despite this constantly changing dynamic, the Chairman of the New York State Republican Party, Ed Cox, sent out a press release congratulating Mr. Storobin on his [currently non-existent] victory.

"While this is an historic win for Senate Republicans, it is an embarrassing and devastating defeat for Senate Democrats," Mr. Cox said in the statement.

Update: The Senate Democrats responded to Mr. Cox's statement with a press release of their own:

"As much as they would like it to be so, Republican fantasies do not conform to reality. With more than 1,000 ballots left to be counted and the margin shrinking to 118, we remain optimistic that Lew Fidler will prevail in Brooklyn.

As we move into the election season, the inevitability of Democratic victories all across this state are evident to every objective observer. While I understand the Republicans' panic, it does not justify their wild and false claims.

Voters are clamoring for a progressive Senate majority that will defend working people, protect women's health and preserve our environment. Democrats will provide that for them."