Are we sure the Mar 22, 1837 reference is to the US President? The presidential inauguration that year had already taken place on March 4. Also, I’m curious what the juicy story was.
It would seem likely, since news from Washington DC would take some time to reach Jamestown, NY. There was no telegraph, and railroads were scarce, so it could take a couple of weeks (or more) for letters to travel that far. A three-week lag would not be all that surprising.
The president-elect at the time was Martin van Buren. If the newspaper was Whig, it would have been quick to latch onto any reports embarrassing to him.
Technically, the Senate & House in Joint Session could refuse to accept the Certificate of Vote. That would throw it to the “One State, One Vote” method. Based on a quick review, it looks like the Democrats have at least 31 State Delegations locked up so probably no, their votes wouldn’t stand in the end.
On what grounds could they refuse to certify, though?
I would bet that there’s some procedural thingummy or other they could use.
Such as the faithless electors being taken out and lynched by an angry mob? They’d call for a revote and (assuming the vote wasn’t in Chicago:p) dead dudes can’t vote.