Gadarian quoted in Jewish Insider article on Rep. Tenney, New York district 22 race

March 11, 2021

Jewish Insider

Shana Kushner Gadarian

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

New York State

Political Parties

State & Local

U.S. Elections

Jewish Insider

Shana Kushner Gadarian

The race for New York district 22 wasn’t decided until February 5, when a judge ruled that Claudia Tenney (R-NY) should be certified as the winner. Tenney and Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) were separated by just 12 votes in the original count, but a range of issues linked to voter registration and inconsistencies and failures in vote counting across the district led to a final margin of 109 votes. Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science, says neither voter ID laws nor voter roll maintenance would have solved the problems the district faced, which were related primarily to counting and failures to successfully register voters who believed they had done so. She adds that these solutions—which are theoretically intended to cut down on voter fraud—"don’t fix the problem they’re intended to fix because there is no problem." Read more in the Jewish Insider article, "109 votes brought Rep. Claudia Tenney back to Congress."