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Nearly three weeks after Election Day, members of the Board of Elections, along with lawyers representing both Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows), are still scrambling to determine the winner of the District 11 State Senate seat.

The process, which is usually a fairly quick one, has been dragged out, said George Gonzalez, deputy executive director of the New York City Board of Elections. And lawyers for the Queens Democratic Party and some Board of Election members are pointing fingers at the Senate Republican Campaign Committee.

“They’re going through each ballot, disputing many of them,” Gonzalez said. “It’s delaying the process.”

While preliminary election night results gave Padavan a 723-vote lead, this gap narrowed to about 500 votes after the voting machine and emergency and computer votes were tallied last week. The next step on their agenda – the counting of paper ballots, which includes military ballots, special ballots, affidavits and absentee ballots – began immediately thereafter and will ultimately determine a winner.

The arduous task of counting ballots has been taking place in a large, clustered room at the Queens Board of Election’s headquarters in Kew Gardens. Counters gather around a table for 12 hours a day and review each ballot, one district at a time. An attorney can challenge a ballot on grounds such as change of address, incomplete application, or unsealed ballot envelopes.

Democrats are saying that the grounds currently being used to challenge many of these voters appears to contradict longstanding, bipartisan policy of the NYC Board of Elections, according to Evan Stavisky, spokesman for Gennaro’s campaign. On Monday, lawyers for the Democratic Party were up in arms over two rulings made earlier that day: one that refused to count 21 votes sent from Creedmoor Psychiatric Center on the grounds that those voters are residing in a temporary residence and another dispute over a Queens medical student working in a hospital in Manhattan. The process is also raising questions about the nature of the disputes. The Republican Party’s attorneys have started selectively challenging certain voters – particularly Asian American voters – while leaving similar ballots by non-minority voters untouched, Stavisky said.

“We were so shocked at what was going on,” added Frank Bolz, a lawyer for the Queens County Democratic Party. “They’re breaking with what they’ve always done. We have no clue where we are with the counts.”

Michael Reich, another lawyer for the Democratic Party, agreed. “Most affidavit votes used to be deemed legitimate as long as they can verify the voter’s address.”

Vincent J. Tabone, executive vice-chairman of the Queens County Republican Party argued that all questionable ballots have been disputed in an objective fashion.

“I think it’s unfortunate that they’re saying such things,” Tabone said. “Anyone attending the hearing would see that there is no correlation between these votes and ethnicity. If anything, it’s with age. People with long-standing roots in the community are voting for Frank.”

As of Monday, 95 ballots had been disputed by attorneys from the Queens County Republican Party. Representatives from the Democratic Party had yet to dispute any ballots, Stavisky said.

The New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee has planned a protest for Thursday, Nov. 20 at the Queens Board of Elections, and The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) already sent their lawyers to the election headquarters to observe the counting.

A spokesperson for the agency said there is no report yet on what they’ve found.

As of Wednesday, Padavan was leading Gennaro by less than 500 votes, Stavisky said, though Democrats stressed there is still a large number of challenged ballots that are awaiting judicial review.