Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway Park) is calling for a recount in the general election for Assembly District 23 against Tom Sullivan.
The race, which has remained officially undecided with 246 votes separating the candidates and Sullivan holding the lead with 94 percent of the vote counted, has yet to be called.
Last week, Pheffer Amato said in a statement, “It is important for EVERY vote to be counted. The Board of Elections is currently awaiting absentee, military, overseas and affidavit ballots to be received. While it may take some time, we must embrace the rules and laws in order to have an official result.”
Sullivan was notified of the lawsuit via an email from the Queens Board of Elections office just before 11 p.m. last night, he told the Chronicle. Late last week, he received one informing him that Pheffer Amato was being represented by Sweeney, Reich & Bolz, LLP, Long Island-based attorneys who are mainstays in the Queens Democratic Party. Pheffer Amato and Frank Bolz signed the lawsuit, which lists both Sullivan and the city BOE as respondents.
It calls for the court to order as issue to determine the validity of all ballots cast in the general election, for an accurate tally to be determined under the recanvass of the votes cast and for all ballots to be recanvassed by hand, according to the documents, which were obtained by the Chronicle.
The lawsuit states that over 1,000 absentee and affidavit ballots are left to be counted and that the absentees are done on a rolling basis and the affidavits are scheduled to be canvassed tomorrow, Nov. 16.
