MONTICELLO, NY — It’s still not clear whether Republicans or Democrats will have the majority in the Sullivan County Legislature come January, because the outcome of the race between incumbent Democrat Gene Benson and Republican challenger Joseph Perrello has yet to be finalized.

Benson is about 10 votes ahead of Perrello, but some 48 votes of students at Sullivan County Community College have been challenged by Benson.

The case for challenging the votes is that all of the voters listed “hardship in getting to poll site” as a reason for requiring an absentee ballot, but Benson’s attorney Kirk Orseck argues that is not a valid reason for a person to make use of an absentee ballot.

In a Memorandum of Law, Orseck writes, “Nowhere in the Constitution or Statute or the State’s website [concerning] ballot application appear the words ‘hardship getting to the poll site.’ The 48 absentee ballot applications in question are identical to the state/county ballot application except that all of such application forms contain an additional albeit unauthorized reason for the issuance of the absentee ballot—‘hardship getting to the poll site.’

“We believe the applications for absentee ballots that include the ‘hardship’ criteria should be deemed invalid, and that Eugene Benson, who obtained the majority of the votes at the polls, should be considered the victor in the race for the Legislative seat for Sullivan County’s District 7.”