The hotly contested New York House race to succeed Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand was too close to call Tuesday night.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Democrat Scott Murphy leads Republican Jim Tedisco by 59 votes out of 155,000 cast — a strong turn-out for a special election.

But state election officials will not be able to determine a winner until as many as 10,000 absentee and overseas ballots are received and counted, which could take up to two more weeks. Overseas ballots are not due to the counties until April 13.

The state board of elections has already scheduled a hearing April 6 to establish a process for canvassing and possibly re-canvassing the votes.

The whisper-thin margin is understandable, given intensity of the campaign pitting Tedisco, a veteran Republican assemblyman, against Democrat and political newcomer Murphy. The most recent independent poll showed a dead heat between the two candidates.

The special election was triggered after Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate to in January to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton , now secretary of State.

The race soon took on characteristics of a national gauge for President Obama’s economic policies and for national Republicans’ performance in the wake of a disastrous 2008 election. Much of the debate has centered on the $787 billion stimulus package (PL 111-5) — whether it is the best way to turn around the district’s depressed economy.

And, like the nation itself, 20th District voters appear divided along party lines.

There are more than 477,000 registered voters in the district, with Republicans enjoying a 70,000 voter registration advantage over Democrats. Independents make up a quarter of the voting population.

Turnout was expected to be a fraction of registered voters, given that it is a special election at an unusual time and there are no national races on the ballot.

Sprinting to the Finish

The results thus far confirm what both sides had been saying for the last several days — every vote counts. To that end, both campaigns and their supporters worked feverishly over the final 48 hours to rally support.

Tedisco campaigned all day and all night on Monday as part of his “Miles for the Middle Class Tour.” He planned to go straight from a series of late-night visits to local diners and other businesses to the polls when they opened at 6 a.m.