By Emerson Clarridge
Concetta Borgia, an 81-year-old woman who lives at a Melville nursing home, sent a letter to the Suffolk Board of Elections on Oct. 18 saying she no longer wanted to vote, according to board records.
Then, two weeks later, a completed ballot with Borgia’s signature arrived at board headquarters in Yaphank.
“It makes this ballot suspect,” said lawyer David Reilly Friday at a contentious court hearing during which several dozen ballots in the the Nov. 6 election were challenged.
In most cases, Reilly argued to New York Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines that signatures that appeared on absentee ballots did not match signatures on voter registration cards.
The outcome of the court case is significant because of the narrow margin of victory for a seat on the Huntington Town Board. Incumbent Glenda Jackson, a Democrat, holds a 98-vote lead over challenger Bill Dowler, a Republican. But the vote count is unofficial and will not be final until Pines rules on the case. The hearing was still underway late Friday.
Reilly, who represents the Huntington Republican Committee, spent much of the afternoon court session contesting signatures on ballots.
“We object to the signature on the envelope not being the signature that’s on file and therefore the envelope should not be opened,” Reilly said of an absentee ballot cast by Frederick DeJong.
Neil Tiger, a lawyer representing Jackson, argued that many of the contested ballots were cast by people with disabilities, and said that explained any signature that did not match. DeJong, for example, had suffered a stroke according to his application for the absentee ballot, Tiger said.
“When people object to other people voting, that is an attempt to disenfranchise them,” Tiger said during the sometimes testy hearing. The comment drew a rebuke from Reilly who objected to the notion that he was trying to disenfranchise anyone.
“I thought we weren’t going to get personal,” Tiger said.