WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS SURVEY. August 31: The latest unseemly fiasco and stenchy stink bomb emanating from the Westchester County Board of Elections, if Councilman Glen Hockley is to be believed, is just amazing.
What a catch by the vigilants! Mr. Hockley fails to file a Certificate of Acceptance. Yet, he’s run for Council before. And nobody tells him he needs it, even though he asked.
Mr. Hockley alleges he asked repeatedly if his information in filing his petitions was in order, and was never told of the need for him to sign a Certificate of Acceptance to get on the November ballot, is the second time in two years the Board of Elections in Westchester County is showing prejudice against a maverick, independent candidate running against the established party candidates based on technicalities similar to the George Brett pinetar bat incident of 1978.
Is this a message to independents that if you buck the mainstream parties, you have no chance?
Two years ago, the Westchester Board of Elections attempted to keep Candyce Corcoran off the ballot running as a member of the Conservative Party because she failed to sign her county and home town on her petitions. Everyone knew she was from White Plains and lived in Westchester County.
The Commissioners apparently did not know the law then. The courts, as Ms. Corcoran pointed out to Mr. LaFayette (Reginald) and Ms. Sunderland (Carolee), at the time had ruled in a previous case in favor of a candidate in Suffolk County who had made a similar error, and ordered he be placed on the ballot. Sheepishly, the Board then allowed Ms. Corcoran on the ballot. How incompetent!
Now we have Mr. Hockley acquiring 2,000 signatures, asking the Board of Elections if he needed anything else or any other actions to be completed, and not being told he needed a Certificate of Acceptance. Or, so Mr. Hockley says.
You need a high priced election lawyer, Glen. Perhaps Mayor Joseph Delfino can hire you a lawyer to put together a Show Cause order based on prejudice, after all the Mayor on his “Farewell Tour”has the money just sitting there in the Friends of Joe Delfino political action fund and he’s not using it. I’d give Joe a call. After all you have supported him steadfastly on every issue the Mayor has been behind.
Ms. Sunderland could not be reached for comment, and Mr. LaFayette is not listed in the Westchester County telephone book, so he could not confirm that Mr. Hockley asked LaFayette personally if he needed to complete any other requirements.
Obviously operating the Board of Elections in Westchester County competently — regardless of the incompetence of possible candidates — I mean, not being able answer a question, or perish the thought, withholding the proper answer — if they indeed they did, is beyond the talents of Westchester County.
But what of other Board of Elections around the state? Do they have such problems, too? Not knowing the law and withholding knowledge of the law (as Mr. Hockley alledges).
Perhaps it is time to take the Board of Elections away from New York Counties and put them in the hands of the U.S. Court System and have them make the appointments taking it out of the patronage trough?
What do Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains think? Answer in the poll on the right. You can also vote as to whether, the Board of Elections should put Hockley on the ballot anyway despite the missing Certificate of Acceptance.
