Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato is legally disputing dozens of votes.
Dan Herrick
Republican Thomas Sullivan is main incumbent Queens Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato by a razor-thin three-vote margin as a recount looms within the race — in addition to authorized fights over dozens of ballots now being disputed by the Democrat.
“We're going to court docket to make sure that guidelines and laws observe the regulation as said and are interpreted liberally in favor of defending the rights of voters to have their ballots solid and counted,'” Amato (D-Rockaways) stated Wednesday whereas referring to a new regulation accredited by Albany Democrats earlier this 12 months.
“No voter ought to be penalized with arbitrary determinations which defy logic and forestall a voter from even trying to remedy potential errors,” she added.
The case filed by the three-term legislator in state Supreme Courtroom in Queens considerations whether or not 92 disputed absentee votes – out of 32,245 solid within the election – would possibly nonetheless depend regardless of issues like voters forgetting to signal them or seal envelopes.
Two extra votes have been improperly invalidated by elections officers, based on the press launch, which additionally notes that almost a dozen extra ballots unrelated to the court docket case would possibly nonetheless be counted as properly, based on Pheffer Amato.
Sullivan, an Military Reserve veteran who has labored within the monetary trade, is vowing to battle efforts by his Democratic rival to get the courts to reverse choices made by election officers within the race.
“These ballots have been voided by a bipartisan staff from the Board of Elections and there have been materials errors on these ballots that that put the the integrity of the poll in query,” Sullivan advised The Put up Thursday.
“It was both not postmarked, not sealed, not signed,” he added in regards to the disputed votes.
It stays unclear how Sullivan’s three-vote lead would possibly develop or disappear relying on a court docket ruling anticipated in upcoming weeks or the guide recount required underneath state regulation given the shut margin.
President Biden received the newly-drawn district protecting elements of the Rockaways, Howard Seaside and Ozone Park in Queens by a 52.4% to 47.6% margin over Donald Trump in 2020, based on CUNY Mapping Service.
However the Meeting District is considered one of a number of that Republican Lee Zeldin received whereas campaigning onerous on opposing felony justice reforms in his shut race towards Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“One among my commitments through the marketing campaign was to interrupt down this no money bail regulation,” Sullivan stated about what he needs to do in Albany if he ekes out a victory ultimately.
Some defeated down-ballot Democrats have blamed Hochul’s “sizzling mess” marketing campaign for failing to provide them the coattails they wanted to win shut races in locations just like the outer boroughs the place the GOP scored a number of upset victories this November.
However authorized technicalities might value Republicans seats within the Legislature earlier than lawmakers start their new phrases in January, with a Brooklyn Meeting race presumably coming down as to whether or not the obvious GOP winner met residency necessities.
“Whoever the loser is received’t belief the method anymore,” Sullivan stated Thursday about his personal three-vote nail-biter.
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