National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions said today that he is confident Republican Jim Tedisco will emerge victorious when all absentee ballots have been counted in the New York 20th District special election. Tedisco currently leads by 17 votes, with absentee ballot counting beginning today in some counties.

"Following the final tally of votes from Election Day, we are confident that Jim Tedisco's current lead will increase given the Republican advantage among absentee ballots," Sessions stated in a press release.

Sessions is basing this on the number of absentee ballots returned from members of both parties -- 3,111 Republican and 2,394 Democrat. Sessions leaves out, however, the 1,221 ballots returned by those who are not registered with either party.

Members of the Conservative Party, which endorsed Tedisco, returned 77 ballots. The Independence and Working Families parties, which endorsed Democrat Scott Murphy, had members return a total of 168 ballots.

The biggest question may be who wins the majority of the 976 absentee ballots from voters not registered with any of those five parties.

Democrats predicted a 210-vote win for themselves -- based on their vote percentage in each county compared to the percentage of absentee ballots from each county -- in a memo that was leaked last week.