No Winner Yet

The dead-heat state attorney general's race is now on the paper trail as both sides inspect some 229,000 paper ballots that will determine the winner. Paper ballots from the Nov. 3 election were unsealed Monday at local election boards across the state, launching an official count that will determine the winner of the too-close-to-call race between Republican Attorney General Dennis Vacco and Democratic challenger Eliot Spitzer. Figures released Monday showed Spitzer with his thinnest lead over Vacco yet reported: 8,738 votes out of more than 4 million cast. The count of paper ballots was considered so crucial that teams of lawyers and partisan volunteers were dispatched to local boards to make sure each ballot conformed perfectly to New York's hyper-technical requirements. The intense scrutiny could delay a definitive count for weeks. "The election law is very detailed," said Fred Altman, a lawyer retained by the Spitzer camp. How detailed? In the bunker-like confines of the Albany County Board of Elections, more than a dozen partisans spent Monday morning checking ballot signatures against voter rolls for forgeries. They made sure postmarks were Nov. 2 or earlier. And they scrutinized paper ballots for all forms of extraneous markings that could render them invalid. For all the complexity, the partisan operations have simple goals: each side wants to protect paper ballots with votes for their side while knocking off the other guy's as invalid. Political operatives have observed, only half-jokingly, that the election is now in the hands of lawyers as much as voters. Local election commissioners - a Republican and a Democrat in each county - will vote on the validity of ballots being challenged. If the commissioners agree that a ballot is invalid, it's thrown out. If the two commissioners deadlock, either camp has the right to go to court. On Monday, preliminary vote totals from the state Board of Elections showed Spitzer's lead reduced from about 11,000 to 8,738 votes. Spitzer's lead has fluctuated daily as vote counts are rechecked. The photo-finish guarantees that the Vacco-Spitzer race will be one of the closest - if not the closest ever - statewide elections in New York.