Hoffman to Decide About N.Y. Challenge This Weekend

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Doug Hoffman will likely make a decision “over the weekend” about whether he will challenge the results of the special election in New York’s 23rd district, the Conservative Party candidate’s spokesman said.

Hoffman conceded to now-Rep. Bill Owens after election night returns on Nov. 3 showed a comfortable margin for the Democrat, who has since been sworn in to Congress.

But amid absentee ballot counting and allegations of voting machine glitches, Hoffman decided to un-concede earlier this week. His Web site home page now declares “Election Day is NOT over” and encourages supporters to donate. Hoffman’s campaign plans to “take a close look” at the count once the last batch of absentee and overseas ballots have been tallied, “hopefully today,” spokesman Rob Ryan said.

The Watertown Daily Times’ Jude Seymour called the race Thursday after Owens took an insurmountable 3,105-vote lead with 3,072 absentee ballots left to be counted.

Ryan said there are a “wide variety of things we’re looking at,” mostly having to do with problems with the voting machines, which he noted were part of “a pilot program.”