NY21 Green candidate Hassig may be excluded from the ballot
Colton environmentalist Donald Hassig may find his race for Congress over before it really had a chance to begin. Hassig, who’s running as a Green Party candidate to replace Bill Owens when he resigns his 21st Congressional District seat at the end of this term, is having some petition problems.
The Adirondack Daily Enterprise is reporting that the New York State Board of Elections (BOE) says it didn’t receive Hassig’s petition to be included in a Green Party primary on time. Hassig gathered enough signatures to be accepted as a Green Party candidate (61), but says he didn’t see a rule on the board’s web site saying petitions had to be in on that day. In a press release, Hassig said the instructions on the Board of Elections web site were unclear:
On April 22, 2014, I spoke with an attorney in the Office of Special Counsel of the BOE. This person stated to me that a federal court order was available on the BOE website, which made known the necessity of using overnight mail if the designating petition was mailed on the last day for filing. I explained that I had not read this court order because I felt that having read the BOE instructions for filing the designating petition, I had a full knowledge of what was required. I took the position that the BOE should have revised its instructions for filing so as to make known the new requirement for arrival of the designating petition at the BOE office on the next business day after mailing on the last day for filing. The attorney I was speaking with argued that I should have read everything on the BOE website. I explained that I did not have time to read this considerable quantity of information because I had work to do and limited time to get it all done.
Due to the negligence of the BOE in having failed to revise its instructions for filing the designating petition, I find myself in peril of having my designating petition rejected, thereby losing the opportunity to have a ballot line in a Green Party primary election.
If Hassig succeeds in getting his name on the ballot, he’ll face Glens Falls bakery owner Matt Funiciello in a Green Party primary. Hassig told the Enterprise that the Board of Elections says it will make its decision about his petition sometime this month.
Tags: election, election14, funiciello, hassig, ny21, politics
“I explained that I did not have time to read this considerable quantity of information because I had work to do and limited time to get it all done.”
Just what we need in Congress!
Well that’s what Don gets for trying to be a man who works for a living and thinks he can participate in the political process. He should do what the outsiders and the hedge fund manager did: raise tons of corporate bribes… I mean “donations” and hire flunkies to do all this for him.
By the way, I want to make it clear that I don’t think much of Hassig, won’t vote for him whether he’s on the ballot or not and he could easily have avoided this problem. But it does illustrate the perils that ordinary people, without the backing of party lawyers and corporate cash, face when they try to run a grass roots campaign. A small thing like the BOE giving you two different stories can keep you off the ballot.
Can’t anyone EVER be responsible for their own actions? He admits he didn’t read the instructions but somehow manages to blame the BOE for making them confusing. How would he know that if he didn’t read them? He should man up and admit he doesn’t take the process seriously. If he did, he would do his damnedest to get elected and then change the process. As we have seen at many levels, it’s easier to be a critic than a leader.
I carefully read the instructions for filing the designating petition that were provided on the Board of Elections (BOE) website. The document that I did not read on the website was a federal court order that was included together with the Federal Election Calendar information. No one with the work of survival to do: making money to buy food and gasoline and pay for car insurance would have taken the time to read every document on the BOE website. The Original Larry is being very unfair. He just wants to attack a person who is working to bring change and encountering lots of resistance from the corporate-government team.
If the BOE is able to conduct its business in a fair and honorable way, I will have my rightful place in a Green Party primary election. If the BOE is unable to be fair after it failed to provide up to date instructions for filing, then I will have to decide if suing for negligence is worth the time and money that this would cost me.
If there was a court order to change the process the instructions should have been changed to reflect the ruling of the third and equal branch of government, not just add the court order as an addendum. We are past the days of quill and ink, it ain’t that hard.
Sorry if you perceive my comments as unfair; they weren’t meant to be offensive. We all have “the work of survival” to do and we also have to look after other things that are important to us and to be responsible for what we do and don’t do. I guess everything gets the amount of attention it deserves, according to how much we value it. I support the concept of your candidacy even if I don’t understand how you go about it. Good luck.
It only takes 61 signatures? That seems pretty low. Many people could drum that up just from friends and family.
I hope he gets on the ballot. We need more political competition not less.
Paul – I think the signatures all have to be from registered members of the party. 61 registered Green party signatures might be harder to find than just friends and family.