Over a month after Election Day, the NY-22 congressional race has yet to be decided. In fact, it is the only remaining House race to be called. Republican Claudia Tenney is currently 12 votes ahead and has urged the certification of the results. However, NY Supreme Court Justice Scott J. DelConte has ordered election officials from 8 counties to recanvass ballots — including some that were previously mishandled by local officials. This is problematic because it sets a precedent for allowing votes to be counted after the statuary period to do so has expired.

More than 2 weeks after Election Day, seven congressional races are still uncalled in New York and California. These issues are a result of the dramatic expansion of mail voting in these states. Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis released a statement about the current state of the races:

"It is ridiculous that California and New York are still counting more than two weeks after an election,” said Davis. “We’ve had election observers in many of these districts and what they’re witnessing is the state’s failure to run efficient elections. In California’s case, it’s the Secretary of State’s decision to mail live ballots to decades-old voter rolls. In New York, it’s the state increasing mail-in voting without making the other changes needed to ensure election officials can count these votes in a timely manner. I understand that this year was unprecedented, but the people of California and New York deserve a better process."

Voting is officially underway for the 2020 general election across the country.  In states like Pennsylvania, there is concern about how recent changes to state law will affect the election, especially when considering the numerous problems that happened during the primary earlier this year.  In both the District of Columbia and in New York City, voting already seems to be just as fraught with issues as it was during the primaries.

The right and honest brokers on the left agree that vote by mail by itself is a flawed voting system.  It has problems with voter error, delivery issues, chain of custody, fraud and more.  In-person voting is the best option for most voters (though some additional absentee voting may be needed to respond to the unique challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic). 

However, we never expected to see support for in-person voting over vote by mail come from liberal stalwart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

It is completely wrong for the BOE to cancel New York’s Presidential Primary.

This decision is not informed by public health: the state is still holding elections for every other seat that day, & so far the only way your ballot will 100% be counted in NY is to vote in person! https://t.co/l8iT7mxm9c

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 27, 2020

Now that Republicans have lost their longstanding majority in the New York Senate, New York rushed through several election "reforms" at the beginning of the legislative session, with no committee hearing process or input from the public.  The package of legislation* was introduced on January 10, passed the Assembly and Senate on January 14, and was signed by the Governor on January 24.  This likely foreshadows how the Democrats will rush House Resolution 1 through the House on the federal level, though fortunately, the Republican majority in the Senate under the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will block its harmful provisions from becoming law on the federal level.