TAGHKANIC STILL WAITS FOR ELECTION OUTCOME
Carole Osterink
ccSCOOP Editor
01-05-10 – 4:45 p.m. - Greg Fingar, chair of the Columbia County Republican Committee, was present at the year’s first meeting of the Taghkanic Town Board on Monday night. Since Fingar, in a December 22 press release, had called for challenges to be dropped, votes to be counted, and Taghkanic’s election to be certified before the beginning of 2010, it seemed reasonable to imagine that Fingar was there to make some statement about why attorney James Walsh was pursuing the legal challenges against 49 absentee ballots instead of following Fingar's expressed wishes, leaving Taghkanic to enter the new year with a supervisor whose victory is yet to be certified and two holdover councilmen. But Fingar wasn’t there to explain why the ballot challenges had not been dropped; he was there to talk about the Town's insurance policy, which the Fingar Agency handles.
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Councilmen Erin Edwards and Tony LaSalvia continue to serve on the Town Board until the ballot count in Taghkanic is completed and their successors are determined. |
Since it was the first meeting of the year, the Town Board meeting began with an organizational meeting, but the town’s insurance policy was the only agenda item covered. New appointments to the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals could not be made since the new members of the Town Board have not yet been determined. Without adjourning the organizational meeting, Supervisor Betty Young moved on to the regular monthly meeting, which, among other things, took up issues of a highway truck in need of repair, the need for a salt shed, reducing the speed limit on a stretch of Post Hill Road, and adopting a procurement policy and the rules of order.
Erin Edwards, one of two board members who continue to serve although their terms are over, brought up an issue that is one of the consequences of the delay in counting the ballots and finalizing the election. The New York State Association of Towns is conducting its school for new councilmen and highway superintendents this week in Albany. Edwards said that Democratic candidates Larry Kadish, Joyce Thompson, and Tom Youhas would like to attend and requested that the Town Board agree to reimburse them and the Republican candidates for councilmen and highway superintendent for the $150 registration fee and travel expenses. When it was suggested that it seemed a waste of money to send twice as many people as necessary, Edwards explained that the next opportunity this year was in Rochester, and it would cost less to send six people who could commute daily to Albany than to send three people who would have to stay over two nights in a hotel to Rochester. Young finally said, “Let’s send the people who want to go,” and the Board agreed to reimburse the registration fees and expenses of candidates who attended the training session.
Final outcome of the Taghkanic election could come sometime next week. Walsh’s brief, arguing why, in spite of the ruling handed down by the Appellate Division, the validity of 49 absentee ballots can still be challenged, is due to Judge Jonathan Nichols tomorrow—January 6. Kathleen O’Keefe and Daniel Burstein, attorneys for the Democrats, have until Monday, January 11, to respond.
In court on December 30, Walsh asked that the Board of Elections certify the supervisor’s race in Taghkanic, since it is a mathematic certainty at this point that Young will be reelected although it is not known by how much. With 49 votes still to be counted, Young leads by 63 votes. Judge Nichols asked the Election Commissioners if they were prepared to certify the supervisor's race. When told that they were not, Nichols said he would not order the BOE to do so.
Later at the Board of Elections office, Walsh asked Commissioners Virginia Martin (Democrat) and Don Kline (Republican) again to certify the supervisor’s race. Martin maintained the position that all votes must be counted before the Board of Elections will certify the election—or any of the races—in Taghkanic, but Kline indicated that he would be willing to, reminding Martin that they had already certified some of the races in Taghkanic. When asked by ccSCOOP what specifically had been certified, Martin explained that, at the request of the New York State Board of Elections, the Columbia County BOE had certified the outcomes the three statewide races—the two proposals and Supreme Court Justice—and, at the insistence of County Clerk Holly Tanner, the BOE had certified the countywide races for sheriff and coroner—both of which were uncontested.
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