White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Briefs IN! Judge Nicolai Reviews the Arguments. Board Awaits. Tallies In.

Updated, Dec. 5:The Principal Law Clerk for Judge Francis Nicolai, Administrative Judge of the New York State Supreme Court, confirmed to WPCNR as of 3 PM Tuesday, that the Judge had received briefs from the attorneys for Larry Delgado and Glen Hockley in Mr. Delgado’s election action. He is in the process of reviewing them. Meanwhile, the Board of Elections awaited instructions, and up-to-the-minute still unofficial results are now available from the Board of Elections.

Correction, Updated December 5. An alert WPCNR reader has drawn our attention to computation error, which shows a surprising turnaround for Mr. Delgado, if District 18 results between he and Mr. Hockley were not counted.

Diane Lundin reported to WPCNR from the County Court House Tuesday afternoon that Adam Bradley, attorney for Glen S. Hockley, and Jeffrey Binder, attorney for Councilman Larry Delgado had submitted final briefs by 5 PM Monday as directed. Ms. Lundin said the Judge was in the process of reviewing them and she “had no knowledge as to what his (the Judge’s) plans were.”

New Election?Board of Elections needs 2 to 3 weeks to get ready.

Meanwhile, back at the Board of Elections, Carolee Sunderland, Co-Commissioner of the Board of Elections advised WPCNR that should Judge Nicolai call for a new election, it would take the Board approximately 3 weeks to set up voting machines. She said the Commissioners, in cooperation with the White Plains City Clerk might consolidate voting districts, and, as part of the any ordered process, prepare the new election roles required.

She speculated that this might extend the period between the ordering of any remedy and a new election. Another factor she said was whether or not the judge would set aside extra time for the candidates to campaign again prior to any new election date.

In Tarrytown, interval was 45 days.

Larry Delgado, interviewed on the subject after Monday evening Common Council meeting, pointed out that in the Tarrytown case where a new election was called for, the judge reviewing that case set aside a time period of 45 days. Going on that precedent, this would put a new election sometime into early February. But, that is speculation only, based on Westchester’s most recent re-canvas scenario.

Sunderland said most White Plains election districts run over 400 voters and there would most likely be little room for consolidating election districts (that is directing voters to new, more centralized polling places they are not familiar with). Sunderland advised that the Board of Elections is given authority to consolidate districts of 2,000 voters and above, while city clerk offices county wide are given the jurisdiction to consolidate districts of not less than 100 up to 400 voters. General, Special and Primary election law spells out the consolidation guidelines as to who makes the consolidation decisions.

Four Inspectors Have to Be Put in Place for every Polling Place.

The Commissioner advised that for every polling place opened, four Election Inspectors would have to be hired by law, another consideration, especially if Judge Nicolai should order a citywide recanvas.

Question of who will be allowed to vote is the Judge’s call.

Sunderland indicated that another consideration is it what voters Judge Nicolai determines have the right to vote in any reelection should he call for a new runoff.

Sunderland added he might decide only voters who voted November 6 were eligible to vote. Another scenario is any new election might only be held in District 18, instead of citywide. Sunderland said the complexity and the time needed to set up a Delgado-Hockley runoff depended solely on what Judge Nicolai orders as “the remedy.”

Other possibilities are the Judge might let the original vote stand, or declare Mr. Delgado the outright winner based on facts presented.

Latest Unofficial Board of Elections Results as of November 30

WPCNR received the unofficial Board of Election results Friday afternoon from Steve Levy, Deputy Commissioner of Elections. According to the printouts, the totals as of Friday afternoon, November 30 are as follows:

Glen Hockley 46 Election Districts Reporting, All Absentee Ballots counted:

Democratic
5,517
Independence
310
Working Families Party
313
Total Votes
6,140

Larry Delgado
Republican
5,591
Conservative
502
Total Votes
6,093

The difference: Glen Hockley leads by 47 votes.

What the suit is about: Mr. Delgado contends that due to the voting machine counter wheel (found to be jammed last week), in District 18, at least 100 votes (enough to give him the election), were not counted in his favor, based on his run in 1997 in District 18.

Mr. Delgado received 57 (Republican 47, Conservative, 10) votes in District 18, compared to his Republican running mates Robert Tuck and Mike Amodio who respectively gathered 157 and 126 votes on the Republican line, and 13 and 9, respectively on the Conservative line.

Corrected portion of article begins:

A New Election or A Declaration of Outright Win is Delgado’s Hope.Delgado is Second to Malmud, if District 18 is eliminated.

Examining the results it is clear that throwing out the results of District 18 as being flawed would make Mr. Delgado the winner.

The present standing of Mr. Hockley over Mr. Delgado would change if District 18 results were thrown out. If you deduct the 155 votes he received in District 18, Mr. Hockley would possess 5,985 votes compared to Mr. Delgado’s 6,038 (going into District 18), after deducting Delgado's 55 votes he got in District 18, Delgado would lead Hockley 6,038 to 5,985, and be clearly the winner.

Under this scenario of eliminating District 18, Thomas Roach fall to third behind Mr. Delgado by a mere 10 votes with 6,028 votes (determined by deducting Roach's 230 District 18 votes from his present total of 6,258).

Please note, an alert reader noted that WPCNR had plugged in the wrong figure for Mr. Delgado in the first edition of this article in computing the District 18 "throw-out" scenario. Recomputation produced the result demonstrating Mr. Delgado is the winner and second to Rita Malmud if District 18 results are thrown out.

This result based on the unofficial totals, made available to WPCNR last Friday, indicates why Alan D. Scheinkman, Ms. Malmud and Mr. Roach's attorney, was so intent on having the Malmud and Roach results certified last week.

Judge Francis Nicolai is now mulling the two candidates’ entwined fate.


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