Conservative Doug Hoffman officially gave up his fight Tuesday for the 23rd Congressional district seat. “Yesterday, the remaining ballots were counted in the 23rd Congressional District special election. The results re-affirm the fact that Bill Owens won,” Hoffman said in a statement.

With the final town recorded from Clinton County Tuesday morning, a recheck of machines, affidavits and absentee ballots in the 11-county 23rd Congressional district shows Democrat Bill Owens with a lead of 3,559 over Hoffman.

Hoffman won more counties than Owens, but Owens won two large counties in the district — Clinton (his home base) and St. Lawrence — and came close to Hoffman in many of the smaller counties such as Fulton, Hamilton and Lewis.

With the last of the Clinton County absentees counted Tuesday morning, Owens picked up another net 130 votes. Owens’ lead increased by 430 votes from Friday as Oswego, Essex, Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Clinton finished their absentee counts.

Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan said this is the only statement Hoffman is making at this time and he would not explain why he decided not to challenge the vote results.

“Since, the morning of Nov. 4, many of my supporters have asked me to challenge the outcome of this race,” Hoffman said in his statement. “Their concerns centered on the veracity of the new voting machines used, for the first time, in the majority of the 11 counties that make up the Congressional District. Over the past three weeks, we nearly cut Bill Owens’ lead in half.

“Sadly, that is not enough,” he said.

Hoffman went on to advise the state and county boards of elections to work to ensure all the new voting machines used in the 2010 statewide and midterm elections work properly.

Hoffman told supporters last week the election was “stolen” by Democrats, labor unions and the community activist group ACORN. Hoffman also accused his opponents of tampering with ballots, but when pressed for evidence, he declined to offer any.

Hoffman also said the close election shows clearly the sentiment of North Country voters. “While we may have lost the election, this race proved that Americans are sick and tired of the status quo in both Albany and Washington,” he said.

Hoffman also thanked his supporters and volunteers. He also promised to stay active in politics. When asked if he planned to challenge Owens for the seat again next year, Ryan simply said “stay tuned.”

As of Tuesday, with all counties votes tallies, Owens had 73,005 votes to Hoffman's 69,446. All totals still are unofficial until the votes are certified, which should be in a week or so.



Contact Debra J. Groom at dgroom@syracuse.com, 470-3254 or 251-5586.

» Read past coverage of the 23rd Congressional district race