Lawsuit seeks to disqualify Democrats from Working Families Party support

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » A lawsuit has been filed to prevent a number of Saratoga County Democrats seeking elective office in November from getting the Working Families Party ballot line.

The filing on behalf of Thomas J. Sartin, Jennyfer L. Gleason, Julia L. Spratt, Robert J. Decelle, Jeremy B. Fifield, Stefanie E. Music, Michael J. Music Jr. and Jeffrey D. Cleary was submitted April 7 in Saratoga County State Supreme Court. The lawsuit was filed by the plaintiffs’ attorney former Congressman John Sweeney.

The filing requests that the Working Families designating petitions naming the Democrats and the respective offices they seek be declared insufficient, defective, invalid, and null and void to designate or authorize them as candidates for the party’s June 22 primary.

It also requests the court direct and compel the Saratoga County Board of Elections not certify, print, or place the names of the candidates on the Working Families’ primary election ballot.

Upon receiving the lawsuit Judge Dianne Freestone ordered representatives for the opposing parties to show cause before a special term of the court at 3 p.m. Wednesday April 14 at the Saratoga County Courthouse in Ballston Spa.

The defendants in the case are candidates Jerome Holland, Melissa L. Boxer, Jennifer P. Jeram, Alexander CD Patterson, Michael J. Williams, Cynthia C. Young, John T. Fealy, Christopher Scarincio, Erin H. Trombley, Tara N. Gaston, John E. Bishop and Barbara K. Turpin. Included also as a defendant is the Saratoga County Board of Elections.

Jeram is running for Clifton Park Town Judge trying to oust longtime Judge James Hughes, a Republican. Boxer is challenging incumbent Clifton Park Supervisor Philip Barrett, also a Republican, while Patterson is running against three Republican incumbents for a seat on the Clifton Park Town Board.

Young is running to retain her seat on the Malta Town Board. Fealy is running to join Young on the town board and Williams is running for town supervisor.

Holland is running for Saratoga County Sheriff, Scarincio for Moreau Superintendent of Highways, Trombley for a seat on the Moreau Town Board and Gaston is running to retain her seat as one of two Saratoga Springs County Supervisors. Bishop and Turpin are running for council seats in the Town of Waterford.

The filing states that the plaintiffs are challenging the Democrats’ designating petitions for the Working Families ballot line because they are photocopies of the signed petitions and signatures rather than the hard copy petitions themselves. As such, the filing states, they do not comply with election law.

The lawsuit claims those Democratic candidates who are not enrolled members of the Working Family Party took a shortcut in the petitioning process by using the photocopies rather than getting them signed by the presiding officer and secre

tary of the Working Family Party.

“There is no basis in law or in equity for a court to waive the strict statutory language and requirement

of a duly executed Certificate to allow a non-enrolled candidate to carry the banner and name of a political party in which they chose not to enroll,” the filing states.

Though the Saratoga County Board of Elections had not ruled on the petitions’ validity as of the filing,

the lawsuit asks the court to make sure the board adheres to the plaintiff’s version of the law and rule the Working Families Party authorization of the petitions to be invalid.

In an email about the filing Jeram said as a newcomer to the intricacies involved in running for elective

office she is troubled by the filing in general and in particular with her race because it is her belief that the lawsuit has no merit whatsoever.

“The statute they relied on in their filing does not apply to judicial candidates,” she said.

Additionally, Jeram feels the lawsuit may get tossed

because an Executive Order by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2020 states that due to the public health emergency posed by the COVID-19 virus, notary publics are authorized to officiate documents remotely and can use audio-video technology to witness a document being signed and then notarize it.

Jeram said she has retained counsel and believes the county Board of Elections has also.

“I’m still excited to be running for town office but it is frustrating that the Republican Party does not seem to want voters to actually have a vote,” she said.