BALLSTON SPA — The judge deciding whether 106 challenged ballots in the special election for Saratoga Springs Department of Public Works should be validated for the write-in candidate is expected to make his decision sometime next week after hearing arguments Friday.
Friday's court hearing followed two days–Jan.31 and Feb. 3– of write-in ballots being reviewed by the Saratoga County Board of Elections, Democratic and Republican Parties and candidates Hank Kuczynski and Chuck Marshall.
Marshall, the Republican candidate, currently has 1,760 votes, including three affidavit votes, while Kuczynski, who ran a write-in campaign with Democratic Party backing, has 1,663. There are 25 undervotes and anywhere between 35 to 40 military votes, with election officials indicating they are unlikely to receive any more.
Appearing before Saratoga County Supreme Court Judge James A. Walsh, write-in candidate Hank Kuczynski answered questions related to his campaign and being the only democrat seeking the seat, as his attorney Sarah Burger seeks to validate the 106 challenged ballots in Kuczynski’s favor.
Burger continued to argue Friday in court that a majority of the votes had Kuczynski’s name but some had other markings such as the word Democrat on them or dots, which shouldn’t invalidate those votes for her client because there was intent that the voter was choosing Kuczynski.
Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Cassandra Bagramian agreed that the 106 challenged ballots all showed an intent to vote for Kuczynski and she spoke to her decision during a lengthy testimony Friday. During that testimony she noted some people wrote his name in the wrong spot, some placing it in the area where the Democratic Party line candidate would typically go and others had extra marks like dots.
“My rulings when it comes to extraneous marks are dependent upon voter intent and if it’s an identifiable mark or not,” Bagramian said during cross examination by Marshall’s attorney Matt Clyne.
Clyne, as well as Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Joe Suhrada contend that extraneous marks outside of the write-in box are not valid.
During Kuczynski’s testimony Walsh allowed one mailer that had been sent to voters to be admitted into evidence, as well as a letter Kuczynski sent to the Board of Elections noting his intent to run a write-in campaign. However, Walsh did not allow another mailer or the pen that was sent to voters that had Kuczynski’s name on it.
