KINGSTON, N.Y. >> The state Board of Elections staff is recommending elections commissioners accept the challenged petitions of two candidates for the 19th Congressional District seat but reject the petition of another.
Cheryl Couser, deputy director of public information for the board, said the staff is recommending petitions filed by Democratic candidate Erin Collier and Green Party candidate Steven Greenfield be ruled valid. But it has recommended commissioners reject the petition filed by Chad McEvoy to appear on the Women’s Equality Party line.
The objection to Collier’s petition was filed by Barbara Sides, a voting member of the Gardiner Democratic Committee who claimed the petitions contained “serious multiple errors.”
Sides claimed that the majority of the signatures on Collier’s petitions were from people who live in New York City, that numerous signatures were illegible and that some people signed multiple petitions.
Sides circulated petitions for Patrick Ryan, who also is seeking the Democratic line in the 19th District.
Couser said Collier submitted a petition containing 2,473 signatures. In order for the petition to be deemed valid, she said, the petition needed to contain 1,250 valid signatures. Couser said the staff found 1,451 signatures were valid, “so the recommendation is the petition is valid.”
The objection to Greenfield’s petition stated the New Paltz resident filed documents with 112 signatures but that 46 were not valid, leaving him 29 short of the 95 valid signatures required to be on the ballot.
Couser said a staff review of the petition found 96 valid signatures.
Objections filed against McEvoy’s petition stated he needs at least six valid signatures but that one of the six submitted was not valid because the signer lived outside the district.
Couser said a bipartisan team reviewing the petition found five valid signatures and so will recommend the commissioners reject the petition.
Couser said the commissioners will meet at noon Thursday to render their final decisions.
New York’s 19th Congressional District comprises all of Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Sullivan, Delaware, Schoharie and Otsego counties; most of Dutchess County; parts of Rensselaer and Montgomery counties; and a small section of Broome County.
A Democratic primary in the district is scheduled for June 26. The winner will run against Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso, a first-term congressman from Kinderhook, in the Nov. 6 election.
Aside from Collier, of Cooperstown, and Ryan, of Gardiner, the Democratic candidates are: Jeffrey Beals of Woodstock; David Clegg of Woodstock; Antonio Delgado of Rhinebeck; Brian Flynn of Elka Park; and Gareth Rhodes of Kerhonkson.
Two independents also have said they will seek the seat: TV actress Diane Neal, a Hurley resident, and Luisa Parker of Callicoon.
