State Election Law was Followed with Highway Superintendent Petitions
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We would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few statements that have been made in the media recently regarding the Putnam County Board of Elections.
On May 26, 2023, independent petitions for Highway Superintendent in the Town of Carmel were filed at the Putnam County Board of Elections. The petitions submitted had a total of 1,656 signatures on them. When petitions are filed at our office, a notification letter is sent to the candidate informing them that a petition for that person was filed.
The notification letter also stated the following:
Pursuant to the Election Law, if you are not an enrolled member of the party designating you, you are required to file a signed and notarized acceptance of the designation, on or before June 2, 2023. Failure to do so will result in the invalidation of the designation.
As of June 6th, our office had not received a Certificate of Acceptance from the Candidate named on those petitions. An administrative petition review meeting was held and at that meeting it was determined that the independent petitions were null and void. The candidate named on those petitions was registered in another party and had not filed a Certificate of Acceptance for the party named on those petitions. We cited New York State Election Law S 6-158.11 as the statute requiring that the Certificate of Acceptance be filed.
The candidate was emailed a letter stating the above. New York State Election Law was and is our guide. Had the candidate made a timely filing of the Certificate of Acceptance, this Letter to the Editor would not be necessary.
Catherine P. Croft
Kelly K. Primavera
Commissioners
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