New voters challenged

Board of health determination cited

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Lawmaker David Sager signed 152 separate challenges on October 22 against newly registered voters in the Town of Bethel. Now, county attorney Max Yasgur must advise the commissioners of the board of elections as to whether they should side with the challenged voters or with Sager’s group Voters for Election Integrity (VEI.) No matter what advice Yasgur gives and which decision the commissioners make, a lawsuit either way is a real possibility.

At a press conference at the government center before Sager filed the challenges, he explained a bit about the group’s strategy. All of the voter registrations that were challenged used addresses that come from bungalow colonies with the exception of six, whose addresses could not be verified.

Sager said New York State election requires that a person can only register to vote in a particular locality if they have a residence in the voting district, and the law defines residence as “that place where a person maintains a fixed, permanent and principle home, to which he, wherever temporarily located, always intends to return.”

Further, in case law a judge has said that voters must have “legitimate, significant and continuing attachments” to the residence. The members of VEI don’t believe that summer bungalows, which are closed for most of the year, can qualify as residences under the law for voting purposes.

Sager said that the New York State Department of Health (DOH), which issues permits to the bungalow operators that allow them to have water and sewer services during the summer, “classifies bungalow colonies as temporary residences, in the same category as hotels and motels.”

As part of the evidence submitted with the challenges, Sager included copies of the permits issued by the DOH.

The registration surge came on the heels of a dispute with the United Talmudical Academy (UTA) about a shul and community center erected on Shultz Road. Fifty- two of the newly registered voters listed the bungalow colony operated by the UTA as their local addresses. Sager said UTA had a permit from the DOH to operate the bungalow colony from June 24 to September 1.

Board of Election Commissioner Faith Kaplan said she and commissioner Rodney Gaebel had not made a decision about how they would respond to the challenges. However, any challenged voters who turn up at the polls in person will be required to fill out a paper ballot, and absentee ballots will not be examined until after the election.

One of the newly registered voters, Moshe Goldberger, wrote several emails to The River Reporter saying, in part, “There are thousands if not millions of Americans that vote at their summer/winter places of residence, and have been doing so for years,” and he added that the only reason that VEI was founded was to keep members of the Hasidim from standing up for their rights (see Letters to the editor, page 10).

WhenThe River Reporter could not find his name in the tax records, Goldberger said that his residence is owned by a corporate entity, and that’s why his name doesn’t show up.

Goldberger said the registration surge was a direct result of the dispute over the building, which Goldberger says is safe and did not require approval of the planning board. Town officials dispute this.

The lawyer who will reportedly represent the voters did not return a call seeking comment.