Earlier today I mentioned that the last race to be decided in the country was NY-22 where Republican Claudia Tenney is currently leading incumbent Rep. Anthony Brindisi by a dozen votes.

Claudia Tenney leads Rep. Anthony Brindisi by 12 votes in the 22nd Congressional District election, according to the first official tallies that all eight counties in the district submitted to a judge today.

State Supreme Court Justice Scott J. DelConte ordered the counties to provide final counts by 4 p.m. of votes cast on Election Day, during early voting at polling sites, and by absentee, military and affidavit ballots.

With 12 votes separating the two, the discovery of 55 uncounted ballots in Chenango County could be decisive. But according to a letter from the County attorney, that’s what was just discovered. The letter reads in part: “Those ballots were apparently mislaid and never counted. Of those 55 ballots, I am advised that 44 are countable and 11 are not (voters not registered).”

WOW: An attorney from Chenango County drops a bombshell with the court– 55 uncounted early votes were just found, having never been seen before.

In a congressional race separated by just 12 votes, these newly discovered early votes could make the difference #NY22 @WBNG12News pic.twitter.com/SVDwXo8tgL

— Josh Rosenblatt (@JRosenblattTV) December 1, 2020

Syracuse.com has a bit more on these unounted ballots:

Chenango County Elections Commissioner Carol Franklin told syracuse.com said all of the newly discovered ballots were affidavit ballots submitted during the state’s nine-day early voting period.

So what does this mean? Well, the pattern in most elections this cycle has been that Democrats won the early vote and Republicans won the election-day vote. So if these ballots are part of the early vote they are more likely to lean toward the Democrat.

However, looking at the NY Times results page, Claudia Tenney won Chenago County by 12 points. Given that advantage it’s very possible these votes could add to her narrow margin.

For now we’ll have to wait and see what state Supreme Court Justice Scott J. DelConte decided to do about them. We’ve already had one race (Iowa-2) this cycle decided by six votes. This one could be just as close.