Should Senate Republicans seek a hand recount of the 46th Senate District, a court battle over another too-close-to-call race of two years ago the GOP won could hobble their efforts.

Back in December 2010, Republican Jack Martins narrowly led Democratic incumbent Craig Johnson following an absentee ballot count.

Johnson, seeking to exhaust every legal avenue, took his case to the state Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, to push for a hand recount in the Nassau County race.

And in a 6-0 decision in Johnson v. Martins, the court determined that the bar should be set awfully high for a district-wide high recount. Simply put, serious irregularities would have to be found in order to justify the process, which would likely prevent the winner from sitting in the chamber for weeks.

Granted, we’re not even close to the process yet in the newly drawn 46th Senate District, which stretches across five counties.

Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk trails Republican George Amedore by 110 votes, but there are more than 800 paper ballots that have been challenged, the bulk of which are GOP objections. The ballots now go before a judge to determine which should be counted.

Republicans have argued that many of the challenged ballots — particularly in Democratic-dominated Ulster County — are from voters who actually live in New York City.

Interviewed earlier this morning on Fred Dicker’s Talk-1300 show, Sen. Mike Gianaris predicted the case would likely go before the Court of Appeals at some point.

Court of Appeals Johnson v. Martins

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