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