BREAKING: A State Supreme Court judge in Delhi today deleted many sections of a petition by Republican Mike Martucci, - including the use of local law enforcement to take control of ballots -- in a challenge to the absentee ballot count in the race for the 42nd Senatorial District against incumbent Democrat Jen Metzger. The judge's order can be found at www.sullivantimes.com. A hearing before Judge Richard Northrup (Delaware County) is now scheduled for 1 pm this Friday. Martucci, who holds a lead of 10,631 votes at press time, filed the petition late Monday night as reported exclusively by The SullivanTimes. He is being represented by John Ciampoli, the attorney who for nearly three decades has served as the New York State Senate's Republican Campaign Committee. Neither the Metzger camp nor the Sullivan County Board of Elections (BOE) has filed legal papers in response. County Attorney Michael McGuire would be the representative for the BOE. Metzger said in a statement late Tuesday that she believes that the 25,000 absentee ballots throughout the District were "overwhelmingly" Democratic votes.
