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A LONG DAY AT THE BOE
Carole Osterink
ccSCOOP Editor
11-18-09 - 4:30 a.m. - The notice went out Tuesday, November 10, that the count of absentee ballots would commence at 9 a.m. sharp on Tuesday, November 17, and continue on November 18 and possibly on November 19. The notice included a schedule of towns. Absentee ballots from Taghkanic were to be the first to be counted, followed by Ancram, Greenport, and the Third Ward of Hudson. Slated for the afternoon were Austerlitz, Claverack, Clermont, and Stuyvesant.
At 9 a.m., election inspectors from the two major parties reported for duty. The Republican candidates from Taghkanic showed up en masse, and so did John Ciampoli, one of the lead attorneys for the Tedisco campaign, and William Paroli, Jr., former Dutchess County Clerk. The race taking the lion's share of the attention in Taghkanic is the race for Town Supervisor. Based on the results from the machine vote, Republican and long-time incumbent Betty Young had 311 votes to Democratic candidate Loretta Hoffman's 230. The paper ballots— 123 absentee ballots and 3 affadivat ballots—could turn the tide for Hoffman, yet she was conspicuously absent from the Board of Supervisors chamber where the counting was set to start.
| After a half hour of waiting, the reason for the delay was explained. The two Election Commissioners were at an impasse. Virginia Martin, Democratic Commissioner, wanted to change the order in which the ballots from the towns were counted, so that the towns where it seemed less likely that absentee ballots would be challenged could be dispatched first and the towns where the likelihood of challenges was greater would be done at the end. Martin explained that she had called Kline on November 11—the day after the schedule had been sent to candidates—to discuss her concerns about the possibility of delays caused by ballot challenges and Kline had agreed to change the schedule and to notify the Republican candidates of the changes. |
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Betty Young (standing) with GOP attorneys John Ciampoli and William Paroli, Jr., early in the day |
Following up on the oral agreement she believed she and Kline had made, Martin notified the Democratic candidates of the change in schedule; Kline did not notify the Republicans. Kline argued that, historically, close races whose outcomes would be decided by absentee ballots were counted first, and it was his intent to continue in that tradition. Martin argued that, based on the experience of the Special Election, "history gets thrown out the window when challenged ballots hold up the process." County Attorney Daniel Tuczinski explained that a judge's ruling might be necessary to resolve the impasse, and Deputy County Attorney Robert Fitzsimmons, citing Section 9-209 of New York State Election Law, confirmed that counting of absentee ballots had to begin that day.
Despite the statuory mandate, the standoff continued. At 11:30 a.m., everyone was asked to go their own way until 1:00 p.m., but when everyone returned at the appointed time, expecting some movement, the wait continued. All the Taghkanic Republican candidates—some of whom had complained bitterly about lost time from work—were back, and Loretta Hoffman, Democratic candidate for Taghkanic Town Supervisor, also appeared. After another hour or so of waiting, word spread that the GOP attorney was preparing documents to request a court order to force the counting to commence. At 3:05 p.m., Ciampoli got set to leave, quipping halfway across the room to Betty Young, "I sally forth to do battle for my sovereign," before getting into a car bound for the Columbia County Courthouse four blocks away.
At 4:20 p.m., Don Kline brought word that Judge Jonathan Nichols had ordered the counting to start immediately and to continue until midnight. But it didn't start immediately. At 4:45, James Walsh, the other leader of the Tedisco legal team, arrived, and it was the Special Election all over again. Karen Feldman, attorney for the Democrats, contacted the Appellate Division in Poughkeepsie to request a stay on Nichols' restraining order, which restrained the Board of Elections from not counting the ballots. So shortly after 5:00 p.m.—at the close of the normal business day—this is how things stood: there was the statuory mandate that the counting begin on November 17; the Appellate Division was trying to locate a judge who could hear from both sides—via conference call—and make a decision; the ballots were locked in a cabinet that could be unlocked only with the keys of both Election Commissioners, and Martin had left the building taking her key with her.
Nearly three hours later, at 8:00 p.m., word came that an appellate judge had upheld Nichols' ruling, and the count began. At one table, the absentee ballots from Greenport were counted. The only close race in Greenport was the Hudson Area Library's Chapter 414 referendum, asking the Town of Greenport to increase its support for the library from a voluntary $5,500 a year to a mandated $16,500 a year. Going into the absentee count, the no votes outnumbered the yes votes by 18 (432 to 414). The absentee ballots closed the gap, but not enough, and the library referendum failed in Greenport by just 5 votes—462 yes to 467 no. (A landslide victory for the library in Hudson increased Hudson's annual contribution to the library from $48,000 to $120,000.)
At the other table, Taghkanic's 123 absentee ballots and 3 affidavit ballots were being reviewed. For each ballot, both the unopened envelope containing the ballot and the application for the absentee ballot were examined. Over and over, GOP attorney Walsh challenged ballots on what he called "the same four objections: incomplete application, qualifications, both veracities [i.e., veracity of the information on the application and on the envelope]." At one point, Kathleen O'Keefe, attorney for the Democrats, asked, "Why don't you just make the objections generic and say 'Democrat.'"
In the end, all three affidavit ballots were rejected and 86 of the 123 absentee ballots were challenged—approximately 75 percent of those challenges coming from the Republicans. |
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At right, GOP lawyers John Ciampoli and James Walsh; at left, lawyers for the Democrats, Kathleen O'Keefe and (obscured) Karen Feldman |
But when the 37 unchallenged Taghkanic votes had been counted—a process that went on until 1:45 a.m.—Loretta Hoffman had picked up 25 votes—19 on the Democratic line and 6 on the Independence line—and Betty Young 11. With 86 ballots challenged and not yet counted, the tally is now Young 322; Hoffman 255—reducing Young's margin to only 67 votes. The race for Taghkanic Town Supervisor remains too close to call.
In the small hours of Wednesday morning, the Columbia County Democrats issued this statement.
On Wednesday, November 18, the count of absentee ballots in uncontested races will begin at 10:00 a.m.; the count of absentee ballots in contested races—Ancram, Austerlitz, Claverack, Third Ward Hudson, and Stuyvesant.
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