Tkaczyk writes bills based on her recount

Exasperated by a 73-day recount that forced her to miss a week of voting, Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk is proposing changes to election law that would prevent challenges to affidavit and special ballots.

Tkaczyk, a Democrat from Duanesburg, bested George Amedore by 18 votes after a lengthy, court-supervised counting process. Attorneys for both campaigns challenged nearly 900 absentee and affidavit ballots, some of which were ruled invalid by judges. In Ulster County, Republicans, then Democrats, objected to the ballots of several dozen election workers. They said the ballots were cast before the two-week timeframe prescribed in statute.

“I was appalled to see in my counting process that the election laws were actually being used to disenfranchise voters,” Tkaczyk said. “These were two issues that we fought over in court … democracy stumbled, but justice prevailed.”

At a Tuesday press conference, Tkaczyk touted two bills that would eliminate the timeframe for election works and make it harder to invalidate an affidavit ballot, which is offered to people who show up at the polls but are not listed on voter rolls, often because they have recently moved. (I actually noted this in a blog post two weeks ago.) Tkaczyk’s bill would eliminate a requirement for voters to list a prior address, and set a standard that a ballot must simply “substantially comply” with requirements to be counted.

Dozens of affidavit ballots were invalidated for various irregularities. Brian Quail, a Schenectady County elections commissioner and chair of the Democratic Party there, said the current law requirements are “silly” and Tkaczyk’s proposed fix was “common sense.”

The bills have 20 Senate co-sponsors and are carried in the Assembly by Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston.

  1. Reality, What A Concept says:

    Now ain’t this ironic. Here’s the devil calling a sinner. The one who has voters from outside her Senate District win her election now wants to call for election reform. Hypocrisy in its finest hour. This is no joke, it’s sickning.

  2. sammy says:

    @Reality, What A Concept – all her votes were from her district. Your accusation is about as true as claims that Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya. Republican standard operating procedure = just make stuff up.

  3. Paul says:

    Tkaczyk wants to simplify the form so that people who don’t have enough intelligence to follow simple instructions can vote. This from the candidates who had TWO NYC contributors spend $ 600,000 on TV ads. She lost her home town and all upstate and won with the Ulster county votes. She bought the election!

  4. PJ says:

    The true irony is that the pubs own redistricting efforts failed. Kudos to Tkaczyk and other dems for their efforts to uphold ALL citizens rights to vote… and have it be counted!

  5. Rusty Weiss says:

    She won by recounting and recounting until the numbers came out in her favor… It is certainly ironic.

  6. Carl Jr says:

    Democrats found a new way to cheat.

  7. PJ says:

    @Rusty.. you forgot that judicial part, where the courts agreed (with her) to have the disputed ballots counted.

  8. bill says:

    @PJ- you mean those ballots where nobody could follow simplistic instructions even my 3rd grader understands? Maybe they need to be printed off in a multitude of languages?

  9. Paul says:

    Sammy needs to recognize facts. Without Ulster county and her rich friends donating $ 600,000 for TV ads she would not have been elected. She spent 1 year as School Board President – her peers would not let her hold a second year. Her ‘farm’ consists of a few sheep.

  10. Reality, what a concept says:

    And sammy, if you remember correctly, many voters were found to have dual residency who voted in her district as opposed to their primary residence. Many discrepancies were found when researching and found the addresses in NYC where their utility bills were being sent. She got away with it but just barely. This is no Republican conspiracy as you would propose, I’m not even a Republican. But just remain in your way of thinking, it’s typical Democratic denial of the truth.

  11. STATW says:

    this sounds too logical for the gop to support

  12. PJ says:

    @bill, your post speaks for itself.

  13. Donald says:

    I can see clearly that the 2014 campaign in New York’s 46th Senate District is already in full swing, with Amedore’s army in full slash-and-burn, sling-the-mud form.
    The sleazoid lawyers and low-life media vermin who make big money off political campaigns are salivating.
    The only losers, sans election and campaign finance reform, are the citizens of the 46th.

  14. Reality, What A Concept says:

    Are people from New York City part of the 46th Senate District? Just curious. They must be because there were found to be voting in the 46th. Now that’s sleazoid and vermin.

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