Bungalows are not voting residences

Board of elections rules in Bethel case

By FRITZ MAYER

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — Bungalows that are occupied only for a month or two out of the year are not legal residences as far as voting requirements are concerned. That was the decision of the Sullivan County Board of Elections (BOE). The commissioners, Rodney Gaebel and Faith Kaplan, announced on January 21 that 151 out of a total of 155 people who registered to vote in Bethel were not eligible to do so, primarily because they listed their local residences as seasonal bungalow colonies.

The controversial surge of registration of Hassidic summer residents, who live most of the year in Brooklyn, began in the wake of a conflict over a newly constructed shul and community center on Shultz Road. Town officials said the builders ran afoul of town zoning rules, while members of the community center charged that the campaign against them amounted to religious prejudice.

At a press conference at the government center on the same day as the ruling, lawmaker David Sager, one of the founders of Voters for Election Integrity (VEI), the group that challenged the registrations, repeated his assertion that the challenges were not based on a bias against any particular religion, but were based on the law. He said, “We have conducted the business of our challenges without engaging in rhetoric which is divisive or discriminatory.”

In explaining its decision, the BOE issued a press release and statements that paralleled the positions taken by VEI over the course of the process. The BOE said state election law requires that, in order to register to vote in a town, a registrant must have a “fixed, permanent and principal home to which he, wherever temporarily located, always intends to return,” and the registrant must also have a “legitimate, significant and continuing attachment” to the residence in question.

New York courts have now ruled twice that owners of second homes sometimes do meet the thresholds of being able to legally register to vote in districts where their weekend homes are located, as opposed to the districts of the homes they inhabit for the rest of the week. The BOE argued, however, that bungalows are significantly different than second homes. For instance, bungalows are built on blocks or pillars rather than a foundation or slab. Also, if bungalows have running water systems, those systems are not capable of being used during much of the year. Moreover, bungalows have permits from the NYS Board of Health that allow them to operate only during the summer months.

But the ruling on the four registered voters—two couples, whose challenges were not upheld—cloud the issue a bit. One couple, the Ausches, owns a seasonal grocery store, which is only open during the summer. Gaebel’s view was that this couple should also be rejected, but Kaplan expressed the view that even though their local residence was listed as a bungalow, ownership of a business gives the couple an attachment to the community that the other registrants lack. The other couple, the Goldbergers, reportedly intend to expand their tax-consulting business to the town but have not yet done so. In order for a challenge to be upheld, the commissioners must agree.

It is not clear whether any of the challenged voters will contest the rulings in court. A lawyer who has represented them in the past, Gerald Orseck, has declined to comment.

The county treasurer, Ira Cohen, also spoke at the VEI news conference and said that any person who truly wanted to become part of the community was welcomed to do so and he invited them to begin a dialogue. But, he added that if would-be voters tried to wrongly manipulate the system, “we’ll see you in court.”