After lodging over 110 challenges last Friday to absentee voters in Ghent and Copake—including many dual residence voters, and even a 90-year-old woman in a nursing home—the Republicans apparently missed their deadline yesterday to take those challenges to court. The Democrats filed a token number of challenges of their own, which they likewise dropped.
The Board of Elections Commissioners are supposed to have such ballots opened and counted as soon as the three calendar-day deadline expires, just like any other votes, according §9-209 2.(d) of the New York State Election law.
But per a report from the Ghent Democratic candidates on Facebook, no Republican staff is present at the County Board of Elections to finish the count. Republican Commissioner Jason Nastke is missing in action—believed to be handling real estate closings elsewhere instead. Matheney posted the photo at right showing empty GOP desks in the Board’s offices.
In a local election plagued by errors and failures to plan ahead, there appears to have been no schedule in place by either Nastke or his Democratic counterpart Virginia Martin for having inspectors finish the count.
According to an attorney familiar with the conduct of elections, sections of State laws make it a potential misdemeanor or even a felony for any election official to “wilfully violate any provision of the election law relative to the registration of electors or to the taking, recording, counting, canvassing, tallying or certifying of votes, or who wilfully neglects or refuses to perform any duty imposed on him by law” (Election Law §17-106) or to “knowingly refrain from a duty which is imposed upon him by law or is clearly inherent in the nature of his office” (Penal Law § 195.00).