Republican Rebecca Shiroff lost her bid to unseat Democrat New York state Sen. John Mannion by just 10 votes after a Central New York judge certified the election on Monday.
A total of 123,148 votes were cast in the competitive race, which means that a 10-vote spread equals a 0.008% difference. On Monday, state Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte narrowed Mannion’s victory from 17 votes down to 10 after a judicial review, according to Syracuse.com.
DelConte’s ruling Monday came in regards to ballots that remained in dispute after a manual recount of the entire district. After that recount, Mannion, a Democrat, led Shiroff, a Republican, by 17 votes. During an all-day hearing last Wednesday, dueling lawyers argued ballot-by-ballot over the challenges raised during the manual recount. That whittled the challenged ballots down from 186 to 97.
Of those, the lawyers agreed on the spot to 10 reversals, with seven votes removed from Mannion’s tally and three votes removed from Shiroff’s tally. The judge then issued rulings on the 87 remaining contested ballots. He ended up tossing eight more ballots for Shiroff and 11 for Mannion.
All told, that resulted in in Mannion losing 18 votes and Shiroff losing 11 votes from the recount figures.
Shiroff conceded the race after the judge ordered the certification.
“While we are disappointed about the result of this state Senate race, I am committed to continuing the fight to give a voice to the people of Central New York,” her campaign wrote. “I wish Senator John Mannion all the best and look forward to opportunities to serve my community in the future.”
Mannion said he was “honored” to be reelected after the rigorous process.
“We have moved methodically through all the steps and procedures for an election this close with complete transparency and a literal seat at the table for all sides,” he said in a statement. “I want to thank all the volunteers and Board of Elections employees who spent many hours and days doing the meticulous work required in a hand recount.”