Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, has erased Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman's lead among absentee voters - and is now 253 votes ahead of his challenger in that category. Mr. Owens is now 3,398 votes ahead of Mr. Hoffman overall with 813 ballots left to be counted.

Mr. Hoffman had what now appears to be a false lead among absentee voters all week because St. Lawrence County - which went to Mr. Owens by a large margin on Election Day - had not reported numbers until today.

Mr. Owens looks like he may win this race by 3,500 votes - or about 200 better than he had after post-Election Day machine recanvassing.

Lewis County has finally reported its two missing towns as well as all of its absentees, so both its machine count and absentee counts for the 23rd Congressional District race are updated today. Franklin County reported 4,589 votes for Mr. Hoffman on election night, but now reports 4,564 votes after recanvassing the machines and reporting absentees. It appears that the recanvass found votes that were incorrectly given to the Conservative Party candidate on election night.

Note: Jefferson and Clinton counties' numbers are incomplete. Jefferson has reported 80 percent of absentees. Clinton has reported 79.3 percent of absentees.

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