Republican candidate Dorey Houle conceded to Democrat James Skoufis on Nov. 30 in the New York 42nd Senate District race, following fresh results of absentee ballots and affidavits.
The final tally shows Skoufis got 49,720 votes—1,434 more than Houle.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Senator Skoufis on his win,” Houle said in a public statement. “While the results are not what we had hoped, we should be proud of what we accomplished.”
Skoufis declared victory on Nov. 9, the day after the general election, when the tally showed he had a lead of 1,180 votes.
He said in a public statement at the time: “We knew it was always going to be a battle in a deep-red district that every other [Democratic candidate] struggled in. But we won, thanks to our thousands of bipartisan supporters.”
The incumbent senator of the 39th district, Skoufis opted to run for reelection in the nearby 42nd district after redistricting.
The new 42nd district encompasses most of Orange County.
On the same day that Skoufis declared victory, Houle said in a public statement that she wouldn"t concede the race until all absentee and affidavit votes had been counted.
“When a race comes down to this close of a spread, I would be remiss to not wait for every vote to count,” she said. “[It] might take a beat, but we are in it for the long haul.”
Lawsuit Halted Counting
On Nov. 10, Houle filed a lawsuit against the state and county board of elections as well as Skoufis, seeking to preserve and separate all voting materials for judicial review.The lawsuit cited precedents in which judicial interventions were provoked in close races.
It also alleged defective voting machines and other irregularities in the election process, which it claimed might produce inaccurate vote tallies.
At the time, there were about 500 unopened absentee ballots, with an unknown amount of ballots still coming in; there was also an undetermined number of affidavits ballots submitted on election day.
The counting was temporarily halted because of the lawsuit.
Skoufis responded in a court filing that Houle had insufficient knowledge to form the stated beliefs and allegations.
He also said in a Nov. 12 public statement that given the small number and breakdown of the uncounted ballots, it was impossible for Houle to come out ahead.
On Nov. 18, Houle withdrew the lawsuit because the gap between the candidates at the time would make canvassing of affidavit ballots an academic exercise, according to a court filing.
