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And Speaking of Democracy (cont’d)…

By Karen Tumulty | April 14, 2009 | +

The Albany Times-Union tells us:

This just in from Columbia County: when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s absentee ballot came up in the queue, the poll watchers for Jim Tedisco objected to it, saying the senator was in the county on election day and should have voted in person.

I just checked the New York Board of Elections website on this question, and it cites the following qualifications to vote absentee:

* unavoidably absent from your county or, if a resident of the city of New York absent from said city, on Election Day;
* unable to appear at the polls due to illness or disability;
* a patient in a Veterans’ Administration Hospital;
* detained in jail awaiting Grand Jury action or confined in prison after conviction for an offense other than a felony;

For those of you who might be wondering: The Senate was indeed scheduled to be in session on Tuesday, March 31, the day of the special election. So it seems to me that Gillibrand was justified (and prudent) in voting absentee.

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  • gysgt213

    Worth a shot though. What is there to lose at this point.

  • sacredh

    The Tedisco poll watchers are being very petty. This is going to be a heartbreaker.

  • Dee in Columbia MD

    If the GOP is so desperate that they are engaging in this kind of petty namby pamby behavior they need to just lock the door and turn around the sign that says closed for business because these folks are done.

  • http://privcorr.blogspot.com/ wvng

    Dee. If?

  • Ivy_B

    In addition to an expectation of being out of the county, in PA you have to submit your absentee ballot before the election. I would guess it’s the same in NY. Would they have preferred she also went to the polls and thus voted twice?

  • sacredh

    Another “Trash the Republicans Day” on Swampland. I just popped the cork on a bottle of bubbly. I’ll apologize in advance in case I don’t feel like it later.

  • http://privcorr.blogspot.com/ wvng

    Ivy. Yes, because then they could have demonstrated a flawed process and called for a revote.

  • Dee in Columbia MD

    wvng — I was trying to be charitable.

  • shepherdwong

    Welcome back, Karen. A little while back we were talking about being IRRESPONSIBLE:

    A recent example of the potential violence associated with a rise in rightwing extremism may be found in the shooting deaths of three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 4 April 2009,” the DHS report said.

    .
    Remember?

  • Tom in The Swamp

    KT, if you are interested in this story, you might want to look into the history of the guy they call “the Pizza Stain Judge”.
    .
    There’s a reason Tedisco filed his challenge in Poughkeepsie, and the reason’s name is James V. Brands. This judge has a history of partisanship in his rulings, always in favor of the Republican.

  • sqr1

    I just checked my records and discovered the following qualifications to be a GOP politician in 2009:
    .
    • unavoidably a douchebag;
    • dumber than a box of rocks;
    • pathologically hypocritical;
    • gleefully obnoxious.

  • shepherdwong

    You left off one:
    .
    •professional liar.

  • sqr1

    You left off one:
    .
    •professional liar.
    .
    No, I said “politician”.

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    Am I the only one who doesn’t understand how this is possible? This is a secret ballot. There is no way to know which of the absentee ballots in the pile is Gillibrand’s. There is no way to legally infer her vote, nor any requirement that she disclose it.

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