POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Dutchess County Republican Elections Erik Haight wants his Democratic counterpart charged with a felony and an attorney barred from practicing election law for what Haight said is the mishandling of a handful of contested ballots in the town of Stanford.
Haight issued a press release Monday claiming that Democratic Elections Commissioner Hannah Black’s refusal to open five absentee ballots whose validity has been challenged by one of the candidates is a felony violation of state election law.
“Commissioner Black ruled to discard perfectly valid absentee ballots and it’s a violation of the law. I simply won’t let her get away with this nor will I be a party to it,” Haight said.
In an interview Wednesday, he said the challenged ballots are “perfectly valid,” and said Michael Treybich, the elections attorney who challenged the ballots, doesn’t want the ballots counted because he doesn’t want to diminish his candidates close lead over the Republican challengers.
“Just because Michael Treybich says (the ballots) are flawed doesn’t make it so,” said Haight, claiming Black, acting on Treybich’s behalf is “attempting to discard and not county ballots with no apparent defect.”
“They asked me to discard these perfectly good ballots, to discard these for the optics of the count,” Haight said.
Haight said Treybich challenged the signatures on many of the ballots even though, he said: “Ray Charles could see that these signatures match.”
Black could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Treybich, the elections attorney who challenged the ballots, said Haight is “out of his mind.”
“This is an insane accusation to make,” Treybich said, calling Haight “full of s–t.”
“On what planet would I risk my law license and my freedom over five votes in a Stanford Town Board position?” he added.
He called Haight’s allegation “nothing more than political theater designed to preserve his job since it’s at jeopardy because he lost every election case brought against him by the Democrats this year.”
Treybich said Black is prohibited from allowing those ballots to be counted because on Nov. 10 — six days before the Stanford absentee ballots were counted — he pre-emptively filed an order to show cause in state Supreme Court asking a judge to rule on any ballots he might challenge. That he now challenged the five ballots out of Stanford, he said, moves the question of their validity out of the hands of the elections commissioners and into the hands of the court.
On the other hand, Treybich said, Haight is refusing to count the seven ballots challenged by Republicans, despite state law that says challenged ballots must be counted after three days unless a court challenge is initiatives. Treybich said the GOP has not filed an order to show cause asking for a judicial review of those ballots.
Haight said Republicans are willing to lift their objections to those seven ballots, but said Democrats are unwilling to do the same.
Treybich, though, said “it’s possible” that he would drop his challenge once the Republican ballots are counted. However, that’s not yet happened.
“The only thing that Commissioner Haight’s histrionics is going to expose is what a hypocrite he is,” Treybich said.
The contested ballots involve a race for two seats on the Stanford Town Board. Treybich says that as it now stands, there are 10 votes that separate two of the four candidates running for office, although the Republican, who is trailing in the race, has conceded defeat.
Dutchess County Court Judge Edward McCloughlin is scheduled to rule on the validity of the five ballots Treybich has challenged on Nov. 29.
