As of this evening, Jim Tedisco (R) leads Scott Murphy (D) by 17 votes in the race to represent New York’s 20th Congressional District: 77034 to 77017 in what has been an ever-changing count.

And the returned absentee count looks like this so far, by party:

Republican: 3,111
Democrat: 2,349
Conservative: 77
Independence: 157
Working Families: 11
Other: 976

Only 201 military ballots and 196 federal write-in ballots have been returned. The absentee voters so far are about 46.5 percent Republican — still more Republican than the district (42 percent) but not as good as last week’s count.

Tomorrow, election officials in the district’s ten counties can begin counting the absentee ballots they have on hand. The overseas ballots, however, still have until April 13 to come in.