Say it isn’t so. The closely watched NY-23 race may now sink into the pointless and wasteful legal morass known as… a recount. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate who lost on election night, now claims various vote-counting irregularities cost him the election, and he’s soliciting donations to help “count every legal ballot.”
Last January I wrote a piece for NRO called “Abolish Recounts.” The title says it all. At the time, I was writing about the seemingly endless bouts of legal maneuvering between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, as they competed for a Senate seat in Minnesota. Because I wanted Coleman’s election night lead to stand in that case, a left-wing blog called my piece “the newest right-wing talking point,” and a commenter assumed my position was “just sour grapes.”
I’m more principled than that, so let me make the point again in reference to this election. Democrat Bill Owens still has a commanding lead, but if the absentee votes narrow Owens’ lead as some expect, then the contest would become essentially a tie. There is too much randomness in voting for us to determine the “true” winner in such an election. From my NRO piece:
Where does this randomness come from? Weather patterns affecting turnout in certain areas, for starters. Some voters also forget to register or to mail in their absentee ballots, accidentally check the wrong box on their ballots, or show up too late at the polls. We have also seen bureaucratic errors made by poll workers, such as wrongly allowing or disallowing certain people to cast ballots. Even leaving aside these procedural mistakes, some voters are simply misinformed.
No recount can make up for the random error that plagues all close elections. Neither candidate deserves to win a statistical tie, and we can save a lot of time and money by just sticking with the initial winner.
Mr. Hoffman, do not challenge this election. As soon as the normal absentee vote-counting process is over, please concede graciously. You do not deserve to win, and the people of NY-23 should not have to endure a drawn-out recount process that is bound to dissatisfy half the voters.
Spend your energy plotting a 2010 rematch!