Rep. Tim Bishop is slowly gaining on his GOP challenger, Randy Altschuler, as the counting of ballots in Long Island’s 1st Congressional District crawls along.

The Democratic incumbent’s spokesman Jon Schneider reports Bishop had narrowed his deficit of votes to fewer than 300 after the second day of counting absentee and affidavit ballots.

The count is almost finished on Smithtown, which Schneider characterized as “easily” Altschuler’s strongest town.

Since counting began, Bishop has picked up 108 votes on Altschuler, closing the deficit to 275 votes. When the day ended, 59 of 60 Smithtown election districts were completed versus 34 of 42 Southampton election districts.

When those two towns are completed tomorrow, counting will begin tomorrow on Southold and Bishop’s strongest town, East Hampton.

“The momentum is clearly on Tim Bishop’s side as we continue to pick up votes,” Schneider said. “We are confident that the votes are there for Congressman Bishop to overtake Mr. Altschuler and win this election.”

To date, 93 election districts have been counted, which is 20.4 percent of the district’s 460 EDS.

UPDATE: Shortly before 2 p.m., Schneider reported that Bishop picked up more than 100 votes after all the election districts in the Republican stronghold of Smithtown had been counted.

With 21 percent of the EDs counted, Bishop gained 111 votes and narrowed Altschuler’s lead to 272 votes. In addition to Smithtown, counting is complete in Southampton. The next towns to be counted will be Southold and East Hampton.

“The fact that we have picked up this many votes in just two towns, including a Republican stronghold, is an extremely encouraging sign,” Schneider said. “The momentum is clearly on Tim Bishop’s side and we are confident we will win this election.”

Share|