NY GOP House candidate Claudia Tenney blasts handling of vote count in disputed race

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is at least partially to blame for the chaos surrounding the uncalled U.S. House election in New York's 22nd Congressional District, Republican candidate Claudia Tenney told "The Ingraham Angle" Tuesday.

"Here is what has happened," Tenney told guest host Tammy Bruce. "Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order in August altering the election rules and altering how we are going to process elections. 

"We allowed no-excuse absentee ballots, anyone could get an absentee ballot; [they] can apply for it online, didn't have to verify, you just have to have your name, date of birth, and address and your absentee ballot is sent."

Tenney, who was elected to Congress in 2016 and was defeated by Democrat Anthony Brindisi in 2018, currently leads Brindisi in their 2020 rematch, according to various tabulations.

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However, as Tenney told Bruce, "we don't even know what the [true] margin is because one of the counties is unable to put a count together."

According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, Oneida County -- which includes Utica -- reported that sticky notes intended to be placed on disputed absentee ballots for reference disappeared. The notes reportedly also noted whether each ballot was counted at all.

Next door in Madison County, N.Y., a spreadsheet that had been used to categorize disputed ballots was unable to be matched to paper ballots by a judge.

And in Chenango County, 200 computers containing important election files were infiltrated by hackers, who demanded $450 in ransom per computer. County IT Director Herman Ericksen told the Associated Press they will not be paying the ransom.

Late Tuesday, a judge issued an injunction to prevent the certification of the 22nd District's results. The New York Post reported that Tenney led Brindisi by about 100 votes before Oswego County State Supreme Court Judge Scott DelConte granted the injunction.

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"Think about this," Tenney said Tuesday night, "because there is no verification, no voter I.D. In New York, we have discovered ... there are a number of people who are deceased that actually voted in this election," a referece to a New York Post report.

"There's so much room for fraud and this is what we think has been going on," she concluded. "The administrative burden on the boards of elections has been exhaustive and you have people who do not have the resources operating under these COVID virus restrictions trying to count ballots -- some by hand -- and dealing with 70,000 absentee ballots in a race where a normal amount is about 7,000 with no staff, and they are trying to make this happen."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.