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Disputes begin after vote for NY Senate control

Democrats and Republicans are both claiming they've won control of the New York state Senate as weeks of counting paper ballots and likely legal challenges begin. WAMC’s Dave Lucas reports.

Sen. Michael Gianaris of Queens, who ran the Democratic Senate campaign, says his candidates took away the majority from the GOP despite the Republicans redrawing election districts to stave off challenges.

Republicans say Wednesday the count of thousands of absentee ballots will give them the edge in two or three close races and help them keep the majority.

Legal challenges are likely.

Republicans held a 33-29 majority going into Tuesday's elections.

It appears two Republican Senate seats could switch to Democrats, leaving the chamber tied 31-31. But that's subject to counting the absentee ballots. The race for a new upstate seat created by the Republicans remains too close to call.

© 2012 Associated Press

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.