NY-20 Absentee and Military Ballots Situation

With just 65 votes separating Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco in the House race in New York's 20th Congressional District, the race is going to come down to uncounted absentee ballots (and perhaps a recount).

There are about 5900 absentee ballots outstanding in the race. With such a small margin on election day for Murphy, the Democrat, those 5900-or-so ballots almost certainly will decide the race.

Domestic absentee ballots have to be postmarked by today and received by April 7 in order to be counted, while overseas ballots (which are largely, but not exclusively military) will have until April 13 to be received.

Naturally, both candidates will assert that they'll have the edge among absentee ballots. No one's going to concede until every ballot is counted - and in all likelihood the election will be close enough that someone will ask for a recount.

This was a remarkably high-turnout special election, and Scott Murphy's performance already is nothing short of amazing in a district where the GOP enjoys a huge registration edge.

We haven't won anything yet, but there's every reason to be cautiously optimistic.