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]| SINNREICH
| KOSAKOFF & M
July 12, 2019
Commissioner Jude Seymore
Commissioner Babette M. Hall
Jefferson County Board of Elections
175 Arsenal St.
Watertown, NY 13601 BY FAX AND E-MAIL
RE: City of Watertown Non-Partisan Primary Election, June 2019
Dear Commissioners:
We represent Allison Crossman, candidate for Mayor of Watertown in the June
2019 Non-Partisan Primary Election.
We would like to review the facts surrounding the outcome of this election and the
concomitant duty of your Board of Elections to certify a ballot in accordance with
the letter of the law and the results of the Primary that you certified on July 3,
2019.
‘The relevant statute was a special law passed to govern elections in the City of
Watertown, Chapter 247, NY Laws of 1993. The pertinent part of the statute states:
“The Board of Elections shall certify under the hand of its secretary
or commissioners the names of the persons who received the
largest and next largest number of votes for Mayor ...
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wwwiskmia.netCertificates shall be in triplicate, one of which shall be filed in the
office of the county clerk, another shall be filed and recorded in the
office of the city clerk, and the third shall be filed with the board of
elections.”, Ch. 247, NY Laws of 1993, Sec. 18, emphasis added.
According to your certification of the results of the Primary Election for
Mayor the persons receiving the largest and next largest number of votes
are:
Jeffrey M. Smith received 837
Allison Crossman received ee
Cody J. Horbacz received 597
Subsequent to the certification of the numerical tabulations of the results
(reflecting the Board’s determinations on any disputed, blank or void
ballots), you issued a letter to the City Clerk of Watertown, which in its
relevant part states:
“The county Board of Elections has until Sept. 12 to certify the general
election ballot for city mayor. We are writing today because we- the
bipartisan commissioners here- are unable to reach accord about which
candidated ought to be certified.”
“We do not anticipate resolving our disagreement without outside
intervention. If left unattended, the commissioners will certify a general
election ballot that has zero mayoral candidates- which seems antithetical
to the law’s intent.”
We are distressed by your Board’s position on this matter. Clearly the
statute anticipated the possibility of a tie for either first and / or second
place in the Primary Election. It refers to “persons” which is plural. Thus,
certifying three “persons” to the ballot fits with the application of the letter
of the law to these facts.
Let us look to a prominent example of the generally accepted application
) SEINREICH
KOSAKOFF & MESSINA urof the rule at play here. We respectfully draw your attention to the Major
League Baseball 2019 statistics for players reflecting such things as win
(pitchers), batting average, home runs etc., found at:
http://www.espn.com/mlb/statistics.
In the American League, the Batting average leaders as of the All-Star
break, were:
1. DJ LeMahiew NYY 336
2. Michael Brantley, HOU .324
2. Rafael Devers, BOS 324
4, Tim Anderson, CHW 317
This listing, reflecting the generally accepted application of our language,
shows TWO players occupying second place (tied with a .324 average).
Another example can be found in the National League Pitching statistics
for wins:
1. Zack Greinke, ART 10
1, Stephen Strasburg, WSH 10
1. Hyun-Jin Ryu, LAD 10
1. Brandon Woodruff, MIL 10
5. Max Scherzer, WSH 9
Here there is actually a four-way tie for first place. Each player has an
undivided share of the first-place ranking.
In the case before your Board two candidates have an undivided share of
second place. Both have earned the right to be on the November ballot.
Any contrary decision, or an abdication of the Board’s duty to certify the
ballot for the General Election, would serve to disenfranchise a large
number of voters in Watertown.
The law is not vague. The only thing new here is that for the first time
since the law was enacted there has been a tie between two candidates.
This is not the first time that there has been a tie in an election in this state.
A) SINNREICH
1) ROSARGEES MESSINAw