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Ballot count continues
  
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Officials comment on Tuesday’s delay
By Jamie Larson
After counting ballots until 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Board of Elections officials, volunteers, and a herd of lawyers were back at the county office building to count the pile of absentee ballots that will decide a number of still contested races countywide.
At the end of the day Wednesday sharp words were exchanged between Republican and Democratic party officials over the confusing situation of the previous day surrounding the ballot counting schedule.
The BOE sent out a schedule last week which had the contested races being counted first and the uncontested races counted later.
BOE Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin then decided that it would be better to hold the contested counts second since they would take longer. The new schedule was given to Democrats but not Republicans and the day turned into an argument that went back and forth in Columbia County Court, until ballot counting began late in the evening.
County Republican Committee Chairman Greg Fingar felt that Martin did a disservice to the vote by the confusion caused on Tuesday when she refused to begin the count.
“In retrospect I believe (Tuesday) was a strategic plan to allow Virginia Martin nearly 11 hours for her legal counsel to arrive on the scene,” Fingar said. “The compassionate thing to do would have been for her, at 9 a.m. to come out and say that the Republican Party is represented by legal counsel and I failed to secure legal counsel. By doing that we would have allowed 35 volunteers and county employees to go home rather than sit and wait for ten hours while Virginia was locked in her office and refused to count ballots.
“Additionally,” Fingar continued, “it would have been nice, at 2 a.m., after 17 hours if Virginia would have thanked everyone for coming and apologized for the inhumane conditions she subjected us to.”
Martin responded that Fingar had his facts wrong and that he and BOE Republican Chairman Donald Kline were trying to politicize the election office which is supposed to be neutral to both parties. She said she talked to Kline about reworking the schedule and he agreed, but while she contacted the Democrats about the changes the Republicans stuck to the old schedule.
County Democratic Committee Chairman Christopher Nolan responded to Fingar’s statement about Martin. “His facts are wrong,” Nolan said, “it’s just posturing and piffle. It doesn’t deserve a response. This is a scheme for a larger Republican mission, to weed out the votes of people who are second home owners. They don’t want people who live up here Thursday through Sunday to tell them what to do, but they will gladly take their tax dollars.”
Only three and a half contested voting districts were counted Tuesday and Wednesday, as the process was slowed to a snail’s pace by party lawyers, who challenged more ballots than were allowed to be counted. The validity of ballots was challenged on the merits of their applications and envelopes alone and will have to be evaluated by a county judge before they can be tallied or thrown out.
Though lawyers and Board of Elections officials have spent the past two days analyzing the validity of ballots for the still unsettled elections of just three races, only one statistically vulnerable candidate could be confirmed as a winner Wednesday.
Republican William Hallenbeck has officially unseated Democrat Joseph Finn for his seat as Hudson’s Third Ward supervisor. Hallenbeck won the seat by seven votes, 138 to 131, according to still unofficial BOE numbers.
The only reason that the Third Ward contested race was even counted Wednesday was because Hallenbeck said he did not want to have Republican party lawyers challenge any of the 32 absentee ballots. City Democratic county officials agreed and the votes were tallied at one of the faster tables set up in the Board of Supervisors Chamber, that were free of party lawyers.
On Tuesday night ballots began being addressed for the town of Taghkanic at 7 p.m. and were completed being counted at 2 a.m. the following day. Of 126 absentee ballots submitted by Taghkanic residents, only 37 were not challenged by party lawyers. Democratic attorneys said they challenged less than 10 of those. The new unofficial numbers have Republican Supervisor Elizabeth Young leading her challenger, Democrat Loretta Hoffmann, 322 to 255.
On Wednesday lawyers worked at evaluating more 100 envelopes and ballot applications from Ancram’s first voting district from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. another similar sized stack of ballots remains for the second district. Again Republican lawyers did the majority of the ballot challenging. The drawn out process will eventually decide whether Madeleine Israel or incumbent Donna Hoyt will have a seat on the Town Board.
At the tables counting uncontested races, all but four voting districts in the entire county were completed in seven hours. The numbers have not been finalized but no outcomes were changed. The only uncontested town races left to be counted are the towns of Clermont and Stockport and one voting district in Kinderhook.
The challenging and potential counting of ballots will recommence at the BOE this morning at 9 a.m.
To reach reporter Jamie Larson, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2269, or e-mail jlarson@registerstar.com.
At the end of the day Wednesday sharp words were exchanged between Republican and Democratic party officials over the confusing situation of the previous day surrounding the ballot counting schedule.
The BOE sent out a schedule last week which had the contested races being counted first and the uncontested races counted later.
BOE Democratic Commissioner Virginia Martin then decided that it would be better to hold the contested counts second since they would take longer. The new schedule was given to Democrats but not Republicans and the day turned into an argument that went back and forth in Columbia County Court, until ballot counting began late in the evening.
County Republican Committee Chairman Greg Fingar felt that Martin did a disservice to the vote by the confusion caused on Tuesday when she refused to begin the count.
“In retrospect I believe (Tuesday) was a strategic plan to allow Virginia Martin nearly 11 hours for her legal counsel to arrive on the scene,” Fingar said. “The compassionate thing to do would have been for her, at 9 a.m. to come out and say that the Republican Party is represented by legal counsel and I failed to secure legal counsel. By doing that we would have allowed 35 volunteers and county employees to go home rather than sit and wait for ten hours while Virginia was locked in her office and refused to count ballots.
“Additionally,” Fingar continued, “it would have been nice, at 2 a.m., after 17 hours if Virginia would have thanked everyone for coming and apologized for the inhumane conditions she subjected us to.”
Martin responded that Fingar had his facts wrong and that he and BOE Republican Chairman Donald Kline were trying to politicize the election office which is supposed to be neutral to both parties. She said she talked to Kline about reworking the schedule and he agreed, but while she contacted the Democrats about the changes the Republicans stuck to the old schedule.
County Democratic Committee Chairman Christopher Nolan responded to Fingar’s statement about Martin. “His facts are wrong,” Nolan said, “it’s just posturing and piffle. It doesn’t deserve a response. This is a scheme for a larger Republican mission, to weed out the votes of people who are second home owners. They don’t want people who live up here Thursday through Sunday to tell them what to do, but they will gladly take their tax dollars.”
Only three and a half contested voting districts were counted Tuesday and Wednesday, as the process was slowed to a snail’s pace by party lawyers, who challenged more ballots than were allowed to be counted. The validity of ballots was challenged on the merits of their applications and envelopes alone and will have to be evaluated by a county judge before they can be tallied or thrown out.
Though lawyers and Board of Elections officials have spent the past two days analyzing the validity of ballots for the still unsettled elections of just three races, only one statistically vulnerable candidate could be confirmed as a winner Wednesday.
Republican William Hallenbeck has officially unseated Democrat Joseph Finn for his seat as Hudson’s Third Ward supervisor. Hallenbeck won the seat by seven votes, 138 to 131, according to still unofficial BOE numbers.
The only reason that the Third Ward contested race was even counted Wednesday was because Hallenbeck said he did not want to have Republican party lawyers challenge any of the 32 absentee ballots. City Democratic county officials agreed and the votes were tallied at one of the faster tables set up in the Board of Supervisors Chamber, that were free of party lawyers.
On Tuesday night ballots began being addressed for the town of Taghkanic at 7 p.m. and were completed being counted at 2 a.m. the following day. Of 126 absentee ballots submitted by Taghkanic residents, only 37 were not challenged by party lawyers. Democratic attorneys said they challenged less than 10 of those. The new unofficial numbers have Republican Supervisor Elizabeth Young leading her challenger, Democrat Loretta Hoffmann, 322 to 255.
On Wednesday lawyers worked at evaluating more 100 envelopes and ballot applications from Ancram’s first voting district from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. another similar sized stack of ballots remains for the second district. Again Republican lawyers did the majority of the ballot challenging. The drawn out process will eventually decide whether Madeleine Israel or incumbent Donna Hoyt will have a seat on the Town Board.
At the tables counting uncontested races, all but four voting districts in the entire county were completed in seven hours. The numbers have not been finalized but no outcomes were changed. The only uncontested town races left to be counted are the towns of Clermont and Stockport and one voting district in Kinderhook.
The challenging and potential counting of ballots will recommence at the BOE this morning at 9 a.m.
To reach reporter Jamie Larson, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2269, or e-mail jlarson@registerstar.com.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of registerstar.com.
JFromKinderhook wrote on Nov 19, 2009 7:10 AM:
" Did Mr. Nolan ever consider that other than democrats may also be second homeowners. I'm not sure what piffle means but I certainly don't buy into his mission and conspiricy theory, right wing or otherwise. "
swingbatter2 wrote on Nov 19, 2009 3:14 PM:
" The comments about of targeting second homeowners probably comes from observing who is challenged and why. For example, NY city mailing addresses or non-local postmarks on ballots belonging to registered Democrats, and possibly NOPs, are challenged. The list of absentee ballot applications is available via FOIA request. They look at the list, figure out who is likely to vote for the Democrat, and then figure out grounds on which to challenge them. The attorneys walk in there knowing who they're going to challenge. In the Murphy-Tedisco race, they weren't even going to let Senator Gillibrand's vote count without a challenge! It's not about fairness and the law, it's about eliminating votes for the other candidate, any way they can. "
JfromKinderhook wrote on Nov 19, 2009 11:34 PM:
" Oh, okay swingbatter2, thanks. It sounds like you have done this type of thing yourself. I assume then that the other "they," the Democrats, are not counting votes on behalf of their candidates in the close races, but are instead there for all of us, protecting the integrity of the process. "
swingbatter2 wrote on Nov 23, 2009 2:47 PM:
" @JfromKinderhook
Done what kind of thing? Stolen people's right to vote? Because I understand the process, I must have done it? Get over your partisan self. No. I described exactly what was going on down in Hudson last week,which looked a lot like what went on after the special election. If I'd seen your comment in time, I would have suggested you go to the Board of Elections and see for yourself. It was an open proceeding. And very eye-opening. I wish more people had the opportunity to observe. "
Done what kind of thing? Stolen people's right to vote? Because I understand the process, I must have done it? Get over your partisan self. No. I described exactly what was going on down in Hudson last week,which looked a lot like what went on after the special election. If I'd seen your comment in time, I would have suggested you go to the Board of Elections and see for yourself. It was an open proceeding. And very eye-opening. I wish more people had the opportunity to observe. "
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stonepound wrote on Nov 19, 2009 6:54 AM: