Dobbs Ferry, New York 10522. February 27, 2007. When the Dobbs Ferry Party (“DFP”) learned on Friday afternoon that the referendum to move the election date had been nullified, they should not have been surprised. The ruling by Westchester County Commissioner LaFayette that an impetuous Village Clerk had grossly overstepped her jurisdiction by filing and certifying the petitions was predictable. Ever since the election date and oversight was shifted two years prior from the Village to the County, the Board of Elections and the Village Clerk have been sparring, circling each other like rival stags, marking and defending their territory.
Commissioner LaFayette (Democrat) minced no words in his ruling. “… the Board of Elections is responsible for conducting this election… The Village Clerk has no authority to certify this referendum…Said original petitions were never forwarded to the Board of Elections … Commissioner LaFayette is uncertain as to whether the original petitions exist … Therefore, the Referendum is invalid and will not appear on the ballet for the General Village Election to be held on March 20, 2007.”
By his clarity of style and its forcefulness, Commissioner LaFayette showed himself to be the protector of the integrity of the electoral process and the legal prerogatives of the Westchester County Board of Elections.
Curiously, and quite out of character, in that very same document, Commissioner Sunderland (Republican) broke ranks with her colleague — “It is beyond the purview of this Board to invalidate the certification of a Village Clerk – and shockingly undercut the very Board of Elections that she had been appointed to defend. But not to worry, she would redeem herself the very next day by knocking the Democrats off the ballot in neighboring
Even more curiously, to us laymen who are not privy to the machinations of
Though there may appear to be a subtle political undertone to this controversy, such an interpretation of Friday’s monumental events would detract from the import of the issue. This is about protecting the American people from electoral irregularities, not about helping the Democrats or their rival, the Dobbs Ferry Party and its Republican supporters.
Yes, it has been pointed out by the DFP that the Democrats benefit unfairly from November elections because a lot more people vote, as summed up in the immortal words of DFP leader David Mintzes,
“"We say that we have a respect that we should make it easy for people to vote, that people should be able to get to the polls. I don’t think that’s the responsibility of government . . . The people who are showing up in November and voting for local officials and local issues are uninformed voters. They are people who are voting because they just happen to be in the voting both . . . A lot of these folks are uninformed, because if they were informed, if they cared, if they were willing to come and vote in March, why don’t they?"
And it has been said by various cynical Democrats that the Dobbs Ferry Party unfairly benefits from March elections because only real Dobbs Ferrites – typically people who have lived in the Village for at least three generations – have developed the instinctual trait of voting in the dead of winter.
Actually even fewer people show up for the Dobbs Ferry Union Free School District elections in May and the school district election is nonpartisan by law and has a budget three times that of the Village – but that is a story for another day.
What really lurks behind this decision is good old-fashioned payback. Three years ago the DFP (Republican) did everything in its power through its absolute control of the Village Clerk to nullify the first referendum. For that referendum, the petitions were filed one day too late by the Village Clerk with the Board of Elections to appear on the November ballot. It has be alleged, but not proven, that the Village Clerk dawdled on instructions from the DFP. This time around the Village Clerk still controlled by the Mayor (DFP) expedited the certification process in an effort to catch the opposition off guard. But it now appears that in its haste the DFP may have overplayed its hand. At least temporarily.
Temporarily, because like most things in
So the outcome of Commissioner LaFayette’s little turf war with the Village Clerk (or partisan tit-for-tat) will hinge upon who can field the best team of lawyers: the Democrats or the Republicans.
POST-SCRIPT: Village Attorney Kevin Plunkett (Republican) did outflank Commissioner LaFayette (Democrat) and brokered a deal to hold the referendum on March 20th, forcing the Democratic majority to vote down the deal. Bets are on that the Democrats will ‘recover by approving the referendum for November. What goes around comes around !
“But I’ve seen it all in a small town” John Mellencamp.
Wisdom of an eleven year old Dobbs Ferrite: “Dad, Americans aren’t free in the sense that we can do what we want; we are free in the sense that no foreign country rules us.”
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