According to the Daily News and DNAinfo, after weeks of agonizing uncertainty and hand recounts, it has been reported that Chris Olechowski has taken Lincoln Restler’s place as State Committeeman for the 50th Assembly District for the Democratic Party in Brooklyn, which includes Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Wallabout.
Relieved? Angered? Confused? Leave your comments below.
I can’t take this roller coaster ride! The verdict is still out as to whether Lincoln Restler won the recent election. Here is a recent email that explains:
“Dear Jen,
On Friday evening, the canvassing of voting machines was completed and emergency, affidavit, and absentee ballots were all fully accounted for. Board of Elections staff and our election lawyers confirmed the result: every valid ballot had been counted and we had overcome a 136 vote margin on election night to be ahead by 53 votes in the final result.
Then on Saturday, we received a phone call from technological consultants to the Board of Elections informing us that their assessment had changed. Two memory sticks from the same scanning machine had yielded different results. We spent the weekend assessing how two data drives from the same machine could possibly provide different numbers, but we now believe we are facing a deficit of 31 votes.
Ultimately this vote difference does not change what happens next: despite everything the Brooklyn machine threw at us – the margin in this election is so small that State law mandates a hand recount of every ballot before the election result is final. The spread is now 50.1% to 49.9% in a 12,000 vote race, which means every single ballot that the BOE will now be reviewing truly counts. We are looking for volunteers who would be willing to help us monitor the hand recount, please email me directly if you would like to be involved in this process.
Thank you for your tremendous support and I am sorry for the roller coaster ride!
Lincoln Restler”
Listen to Greenpointers’ first podcast when I interview Lincoln Restler who is up for reelection as State Committeeman for the 50th Assembly District for the Democratic Party in Brooklyn, which includes Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and Wallabout. (I don’t know what Wallabout is.)
Greenpointers Podcast #1-Lincoln Restler
The election is tomorrow, so if you are a democrat make sure you get out and vote!
In the podcast, we talk about what Brooklyn means to Lincoln, his role as State Committeeman, the current state of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn including the controversy surrounding Vito Lopez, the environmental issues in Greenpoint and how we can clean-up our neighborhood, the homeless shelter on McGuinnes Blvd and the homeless population here, and the waterfront development and it’s impact on our sense of community.
I would like to thank Annie Russell, who is an audio and podcasting genius and made this possible!
