A Saratoga County state Supreme Court Judge has ruled largely against a Democratic write-in candidate in a case to determine the Saratoga Springs’ next commissioner of public works.
Republican Chuck Marshall was the only candidate on the January 28th ballot. Interim commissioner Hank Kuczynski decided to run a write-in campaign just weeks before election day, after Democrats failed to nominate any candidate following a disagreement over the election's timeline and a Republican elections commissioner initially refused to sign-on to the mid-winter date.
Marshall finished with 1,760 votes, while Kuczynski received 1,663 uncontested write-ins.
On Friday, Judge James Walsh's decision voided 93 of a total 106 contested ballots that could have helped Kuczynski narrow the lead.
Walsh wrote ballots containing words outside the write-in space or marks that could otherwise identify a voter are invalid.
More than 60 of the invalid ballots were tossed due to voters writing "democrat" or "dem" in a box adjacent to the write-in box. 14 of the invalid ballots were thrown out because the voters had written Kuczynski's name in additional spaces.
Kuczynski's attorney Sarah Burger says they're considering an appeal.
"We are in the process of reviewing it but we maintain that all of the ballots that say 'Hank Kuczynski' in the write-in box should be counted for Hank Kuczynski. Otherwise it's voter disenfranchisement," said Burger.
City Republican Committee Chair Mike Brandi celebrated the decision.
"The judge made the right decision here. Judge Walsh's decision was based on some pretty clear precedent so we expected to prevail and we expected this result and we have this result and it looks like Chuck is up by about 85 votes," said Brandi.
Republican County Board of Elections Commissioner Joe Surhada tells WAMC the board will wait to certify the election until the appeal process is complete. The winner will serve for the rest of the year.
