Bishop now leads Altschuler by more than 230 votes

As Suffolk elections officials finished counting absentee ballots Tuesday, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) emerged with a lead of more than 230 votes over Republican Randy Altschuler in the closest unresolved congressional race in the nation.

The end of the absentee count was a milestone in a three-week roller-coaster ride in which unofficial reports first had Bishop leading by 3,461 votes, although those numbers stemmed from incorrect tallies phoned in by poll workers. By the time the absentee count began last week, Altschuler, a wealthy St. James businessman, held an unofficial 383-vote advantage.

Bishop expressed optimism yesterday that he would win a fifth term representing the East End, Brookhaven and Smithtown in the 1st Congressional District.

"I am absolutely delighted in the bipartisan support that this absentee count says that I have," Bishop said. "They [the Altschuler campaign] challenged an enormous number of votes, virtually all of which were Democrats, and still I picked up 618 votes" in the absentee count.

Bishop said his margin is 235 votes. Altschuler's campaign spokesman, Rob Ryan, said it is 234 votes. Suffolk elections officials did not release an official margin.

Ryan said Altschuler's attorneys will spend the Thanksgiving holiday weekend "reviewing all pertinent information. We want to ensure that every legally cast ballot is fairly and accurately counted."

Officials from both campaigns said there would be little activity in the race until next week, when campaign attorneys are scheduled to appear before State Supreme Court Justice Peter Mayer in Riverhead to determine the fate of more than 2,000 absentee and affidavit ballots the campaigns challenged in the last week. Altschuler's campaign challenged 471 more ballots than Bishop's, leading Bishop to predict that his final margin will be "in the 500 to 600 range."

Wednesday is the last day for elections officials to receive military ballots. So far there are 71 uncounted military ballots and 162 uncounted emergency ballots from Election Day.

After upstate Rep. Dan Maffei (D-DeWitt) conceded Tuesday to Republican Ann Marie Buerkle, the Bishop-Altschuler race remains one of just three unresolved congressional races nationwide. Two California Republicans have yet to concede to incumbent Democrats despite each trailing by more than 1,700 votes. The races have yet to be certified.

In the other tight Suffolk race, county Legis. Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham) was leading Assemb. Marc Alessi (D-Shoreham) by 906 votes after all absentee ballots were counted. Losquadro's attorney, Steven Losquadro, said about 520 challenged ballots, and 50 military ballots, remain uncounted. Alessi did not return telephone messages.

At the end of the day in Mineola, Nassau County election officials said state Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) was trailing Mineola Mayor Jack Martins by 320 votes with 150 challenged absentee ballots left to count and another 170 ballots that must be ruled on by Nassau State Supreme Court Justice Ira Warshawsky, who is overseeing the race.

With Sid Cassese