Judge rejects election lawsuit
O’Shea vows appeal in case of disputed school board seat
STAMFORD — A judge has rejected a lawsuit challenging the outcome of an election for a seat on the Board of Education, preserving the current board makeup for another year.
Stephanie O’Shea filed the lawsuit after she received the most votes for a position on the board.
But the race was deemed invalid by the city’s legal department prior to Election Day, and final results of the contest were not reported to the state. The office appeared on the November ballot, with no candidates listed. Several hundred residents wrote in votes.
O’Shea received 578 write-in votes, outpacing current board member and Republican Becky Hamman, who received 21 votes, and Republican Josh Esses, who garnered two votes.
Judge Robert Genuario on Friday agreed that the election results should not have been honored.
O’Shea said she was disappointed in the decision.
“I feel bad for the people who voted for me, whose votes were obviously just thrown in the trash,” she said.
On Monday, O’Shea’s attorney Brenden Leydon filed an appeal with the state Appellate Court.
Kathy Emmett, the city’s Corporation Counsel, issued a legal opinion in October stating the election should not have been included on the ballot due to rules set in the City Charter.
Specifically, the election was for a one-year period to finish out the term originally held by Republican Frank Cerasoli. When Cerasoli was appointed to a position on the Board of Finance earlier this year, Hamman was appointed to his previous position on the Board of Education.
In years prior, when a vacancy has been filled in such a manner, an election has been held for the final year of the term. The Charter states, however, that such “vacancy elections” are to be held during biennial elections, which are held in odd-numbered years. Stamford holds its regular municipal elections in even-numbered years.
Republicans did not run Hamman for the one-year term, considering the seat safe. O’Shea, a former Democrat now unaffiliated, declared herself a write-in candidate. Hamman and Esses, in an effort to preserve the seat for a Republican, then did the same.
City election officials, based on Emmett’s legal opinion, did not report the write-in votes to the state. Judge Genuario has ruled that was the proper way to handle the confusion.
“When read as a whole the court finds nothing ambiguous in the phrase ‘a vacancy election shall be held at the next biennial election,’” his decision reads.
Genuario added, “Any confusion caused to voters or presumed candidates by mistakes of city officials in ... the beginning of the election cycle in 2020 is unfortunate. But there is no change in the rules ... That rule is set forth in the Charter. It is clear and unambiguous.”
Leydon argued during the lone hearing for the case that it was unfair to change the rules once ballots had already been mailed to residents, and after some had already submitted their ballots.
Leydon could not immediately be reached for comment.