On Wednesday, members of Congress are in the Capitol, debating whether or not President Donald Trump should be impeached. However, one seat is empty. Voters in New York's 22nd Congressional District are in their second week without representation in the House. 

The razor-thin race between Democrat Incumbent Anthony Brindisi and Republican Claudia Tenney is still under judicial review.

“Right, we have 700,000 residents in this congressional district, like all congressional districts, and these residents right now are disenfranchised from the process. Many people are getting on the phone, are emailing their representative this week to voice their concerns about the historic actions of congress today and there’s nobody to answer that phone, there’s nobody to reply on behalf of a representative," says Dan Lamb, a lecturer at the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs.  

The proceedings in Oswego County Court are currently held-up due to the latest administrative error uncovered during hearings. According to court documents, at least 60 voters in Oneida County registered to vote with the DMV prior to the October deadline, but the Board of Elections did not process those voter registration applications. 

Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte is giving lawyers for both campaigns until 10 a.m. on Thursday to file written arguments in regards to the voter registration issue. Oral arguments will be heard on Friday. 

Throughout the proceedings, DelConte has been clear that this is not a case of election fraud, but rather a culmination of administrative errors. 

"This is a matter of a lack of processes being followed. Guidelines set by the state not being followed. He said it’s not due to the coronavirus, it’s not due to a lack of funding necessarily. He has attributed the failings of this election in particular to human error and negligence on the part of Board of Elections staff. And I think he’s been pretty frank about that," says Lamb. 

Early on in the proceedings, DelConte ordered the Boards of Elections in the district to fix multiple errors made during canvassing, indicating that voters should not have their ballots thrown out because of mistakes that were not their own. 

Lamb says this election in NY-22 would be garnering much more national attention if the errors affected the outcome of more than one race. 

"New York is being spared a national embarrassment in this race because we’re such a blue state. But had this been a narrow presidential race, and the outcome coming down to just a few thousand or a hundred votes in New York, that it was between Biden and Trump, this race would be a national tragedy," says Lamb. 

Lamb says he hopes the situation in NY-22 will spur state leaders to implement training and qualification protocols for Board of Elections staff. 

“This is a matter that’s ripe for reform," says Lamb, "I’m hoping that state representatives, this would have to be resolved at the state level. So, assembly members or senators, state senators, should look at this and should look at ways to better support the Boards of Elections and set a set of standards in place by the New York State Board of Elections, Department of State even, to provide funding and provide training, to have some baseline capacity and qualifications for these county Boards of Elections, so we don’t have situations like we had in this cycle.”

The legal proceedings in the race are expected to wrap up at the end of the month. Final arguments are scheduled to be heard by DelConte on January 22nd, after which he'll make his rulings on which ballots can be counted towards the vote totals. Before the review of challenged ballots, Tenney held a 29-vote lead over Brindisi.