#Washington envoys will watch Monday recount in NY’s 22nd District

ALBANY — The feds will be keeping a close eye on the razor-close and yet-uncalled congressional race in New York’s 22nd Congressional District.

The House of Representatives has notified several county board of elections that they’ll be sending envoys up to observe recounts slated to start Monday. 

The contest between incumbant Democratic Rep. Anthony Brindisi and Republican Claudia Tenney is the state’s only race that has not yet been certified by the state BOE.

The contest been tied up in court since Election Day, with Tenney currently leading by a razor thin, 12-vote margin. 

Several upstate counties were ordered by Oswego state Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte last week to go back and fix any errors associated with at least 2,000 challenged absentee and discarded affidavit ballots.

On Friday, election commissioners in Madison and Herkimer counties received phone calls “on behalf of the House of Representatives,” giving them a heads up to expect at least two additional people in their BOE offices Monday to observe scheduled recounts as ordered by a judge last week.

“They called late Friday and said when it’s a race this close, they will usually send one representive from each party, a Republican and a Democrat, to observe the count. She said they would have papers with them and I didn’t get names,” Madison’s Democratic BOE Commissioner Laura Costello told The Post Saturday.

She expects the two individuals will be at the BOE’s Wampsville office at 9 AM — the county’s scheduled time to reassess counts.

Lawyers from both the Tenney and Brindisi campaign are also expected to be present, along with county BOE staff. 

Costello said her county will go back through roughly 140 affidavit ballots that the county discarded during original counts for a variety of reasons.

Also reviewed will be 132 absentee ballots challenged by the Tenney campaign plus another 73 absentee ballots the BOE decided not to count, again for a variety of reasons — including 54 ballots where individuals voted both by mail and then came to the polls to vote in person.

Herkimer County’s Republican BOE Commissioner Kim Tranter confirmed to The Post that observers will be coming to her office as well — to review a grand total of only two affidavits and seven contested absentee ballots.

“The only thing I know is, they were sending one person, [who will] come with credentials and is only there to observe — and they might have a question or two,” she said.

While she expects her county to wrap up proceedings Monday, she said the bigger challenge could involve larger counties like Oneida — which has hundreds of affidavits and absentee ballots on the table for reassessment.

Madison’s GOP Commissioner Mary Egger said that right now, unless DelConte orders them to add back in her county’s discarded ballots, the tallies will remain as they are.

“We’re there. We’re ready. It’s just in the judge’s hands at this point in time and we just do exactly what the judge says,” she said.

As of the most recent unofficial tally, Tenney has clinched 155,492 votes to Brindisi’s 155,480. Libertarian candidate Keith Price has 6,755 votes to his name. 

But Tenney led by over 28,000 votes on election night, a gap that shrunk once absentee ballots open days later broke largely for Brindisi. 

Both campaigns have claimed victory for their candidate thus far. 

“Nancy Pelosi spent millions trying to buy this seat in Congress; now her lawyers from the House Administration Committee are set on taking this seat by any means,” Tenney spokesman Sean Kennedy argued.

Neither the Brindisi campaign, nor a representative for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, immediately returned a request for comment by The Post. 

The 22nd congressional district is comprised of eight counties and stretches from the Southern Tier city of Binghamton through central New York, then north to the Canadian border.

Democrats will maintain control of the House in the next session of Congress, but ceded seats to the GOP in the elections.