Four Saratoga County candidates will no longer be running as Republicans in June’s primaries.
Ryan Mahan, running for Saratoga County Sheriff, Robert McCoy, running for Stillwater Supervisor, Dahn Bull, running for Clifton Park Highway Superintendent, and Caitlin Fantini, running for a Clifton Park town board seat, cannot appear on upcoming primary or general ballots on the Republican line.
Each candidate was already backed by county Democrats.
The candidates had their signatures tossed by State Supreme Court Judge James Walsh in a Tuesday ruling because they had ballot petition signatures that were not properly witnessed.
The primary dispute comes from signatures that occurred outside the view of the person collecting them or a spouse signing for their partner.
A fifth candidate, Stefanie Bitter, dropped her bid for Clifton Park town judge before Walsh delivered his decision.
In his decision on Mahan’s submissions, Walsh says while the 1,400 signatures don’t appear to be permeated with fraud, that isn’t necessary to throw out a petition if the candidate collected even one fraudulent signature.
The decision reads in part, “Regardless of the intent to defraud, a single instance of fraud by a candidate is sufficient to invalidate a designating petition… Petitioner has shown by clear and convincing evidence, that Respondent-candidate engaged in fraud, which requires that the designating petitions for Mahan for the public office of Saratoga County Sheriff as a candidate for the Republican Party must be invalidated.”
Attorney Joel Abelove represented the respondents.
“All of my clients are disappointed in the outcome. They certainly worked very hard, they’re good people, and they worked very hard to try to get on this primary ballot for June for their respective races. The decision by the court highlights a very hyper-technical area of the law,” said Abelove.
He says his clients believe they were targeted.
“What’s really upsetting to these candidates, and I can understand their frustration, is that Joe Suhrada, he wears two hats; he’s the Republican Party boss and he’s also the Republican elections commissioner, has really pursued this and disenfranchised the Republican Party voters who now don’t get a choice in the Republican primary in June,” said Abelove.
Suhrada says there’s no conflict between the two roles.
“It’s common throughout the state. There are several instances of it. And let me explain something to you, Republican chairs and Democrat chairs are party functionaries. Many of them have government positions,” said Suhrada.
Suhrada hired private investigators to look into the petitions after finding them to be questionable. He tells WAMC he applied the same level of scrutiny to all petitions put before the elections commission.
“They were not endorsed by the Republican Party for a reason and they’ve proven us correct. They are also endorsed by the Democrat Party. The reason I gave extra scrutiny to these folks is that they were all in-league with the Democrat Party and the Republicans are not going to get sand kicked in their faces from people who are trying to play high jinks and misrepresent themselves. They’re actually trying to eliminate choice on the November ballot by taking both lines,” said Suhrada.
Earlier this year, Judge Walsh ruled in favor of Saratoga Springs Republicans after a close January special election for city council, tossing out 90 write-in ballots filed on behalf of Public Works Commissioner Hank Kuczynski, a Democrat, handing the election to Republican Chuck Marshall.
Democrats failed to nominate a candidate for that election following Suhrada’s initial rejection of the January date.
The deadline for appeals is Friday, but Abelove wouldn't comment on whether or not his clients are considering them.
