Blog about Town of Greenburgh politics and history
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Response from Paul Feiner to my Ballot Signature Posts
Thank you to Paul Feiner for submitting the following response in the comment section to yesterday's post [D. Weinfeld]:
The petition challenge was not frivolous. We felt that Mr.Bernstein did not file the minimum number of signatures required to get on the ballot. The Westchester County Board of Elections agreed with our teams arguments that over 20% of the signatures collected by the Bernstein camp were invalid. They knocked out 337 signatures out of just over 1500 signatures submitted. Some of the signatures were from voters who live outside of Greenburgh. Others from non Democrats. Candidates need 1,000 signatures of Democrats who live in Greenburgh to get on the ballot. Before my campaign filed the objections we noticed that Mr. Bernstein signed his own petition twice. Nominating petitions can only be signed once by voters. In addition some signatures on the nominating petitions looked like they were signed by the same person-in the same handwriting. I do not believe that Bernstein's campaign filed 1,000 valid signatures of registered Greenburgh democrats. There were many irregularities in the petition sheets that were submitted -the court should have reviewed each of the specific objections. We lost the challenge on a technicality. I think that if the court had reviewed each of the specific objections we raised that they would have concluded that Mr.Bernstein filed fewer than 1,000 valid signatures. If my campaign team had challenged all the Democrats on the petition we might have won the case. But, we did not want to knock off the ballot the candidacies of Francis Sheehan, Diana Juettner, Town Board members and Anne Povella, Receiver of Taxes, town officials who currently serve in office. We lost the case on a technicality and will move forward. The court made the decision. I'm looking forward to the upcoming campaign. I like competition and am pleased voters will be able to contrast my approach to governing against my challengers.
The Westchester County Board of Elections agreed with our teams arguments that over 20% of the signatures collected by the Bernstein camp were invalid. They knocked out 337 signatures out of just over 1500 signatures submitted. Some of the signatures were from voters who live outside of Greenburgh. Others from non Democrats. Candidates need 1,000 signatures of Democrats who live in Greenburgh to get on the ballot.
Before my campaign filed the objections we noticed that Mr. Bernstein signed his own petition twice. Nominating petitions can only be signed once by voters. In addition some signatures on the nominating petitions looked like they were signed by the same person-in the same handwriting.
I do not believe that Bernstein's campaign filed 1,000 valid signatures of registered Greenburgh democrats. There were many irregularities in the petition sheets that were submitted -the court should have reviewed each of the specific objections. We lost the challenge on a technicality. I think that if the court had reviewed each of the specific objections we raised that they would have concluded that Mr.Bernstein filed fewer than 1,000 valid signatures.
If my campaign team had challenged all the Democrats on the petition we might have won the case. But, we did not want to knock off the ballot the candidacies of Francis Sheehan, Diana Juettner, Town Board members and Anne Povella, Receiver of Taxes, town officials who currently serve in office. We lost the case on a technicality and will move forward.
The court made the decision. I'm looking forward to the upcoming campaign. I like competition and am pleased voters will be able to contrast my approach to governing against my challengers.
PAUL FEINER