Calling election stolen, Hoffman rescinds concession in New York

For the second time this week, Conservative Party congressional candidate Douglas L. Hoffman sought to rescind his concession in the special election in New York's 23rd district, telling supporters that new information showing the results of the election closer than believed on election night made him reevaluate his decision to throw in the towel.

"I am therefore revoking my statement of concession," he wrote in a fundraising letter titled "Stop Another Stolen Election!" and posted on his Web site Wednesday night.

"ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens," he told supporters, naming the Democrat who claimed victory and has been seated in the House of Representatives, though election results will not be certified until next month. "I was forced to concede after receiving two pieces of grim news - - down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night -- and barely won my stronghold in Oswego County. On Election Night, the information we received was far different from what we received this week!"

According to a report last Friday in the Watertown Daily Times, "it's mathematically possible" for Hoffman to pass Rep. Owens in the final count in the 11-county district, but "the math is daunting." Most observers see little chance that the election outcome will change, with unofficial results showing Hoffman trailing Owens by 2,832 votes and 4,262 absentee ballots remaining to be counted, the Watertown paper reported.

Jerry O. Eaton, Jefferson County Republican elections commissioner, told the Times that Hoffman's allegations of ballot-tampering and the election having been manipulated or stolen are "absolutely false."

"No one has touched those ballots or has access to those ballots except board of elections staff -- and in a bipartisan manner," he said.

Hoffman first walked back his concession on Glenn Beck's radio show Monday, saying, "If I knew this information at the election night, I would not have conceded."

"So are you un-conceding?" asked Beck.

"If that's possible, yes," Hoffman replied.

Hoffman's attack on the community-organizing group ACORN in his fundraising letter continues a theme he hammered home during the election contest. "Bill Owens should request that Justice Department monitors be put in place to insure that ACORN's political arm in New York State, the Working Families Party, does not steal this election," he said in a statement in late October, according to a report in the Washington Independent. That month Republican Party candidate Dede Scozzafava also was cast as "An ACORN-Friendly, Big Labor-Backing, Tax-and-Spend Radical in GOP Clothing" by conservative blogger and Hoffman supporter Michelle Malkin.

The full Hoffman letter follows:

Dear Fellow Conservative,