Timetable set for special election

By CATHY WOODRUFF, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Albany -- County Legislature primary will be March 2, vote April 27; new candidates have until Monday to file petitions

A federal judge on Monday scheduled April 27 for a special election of the Albany County Legislature and set up a process for new candidates to run in 10 districts whose boundaries have changed since last fall.

In an order issued shortly after 7 p.m. from his office in Syracuse, U.S. District Court Judge Norman Mordue accepted most changes the county had requested to a plan he proposed on Friday.

A federal appeals court last week ordered a legislative primary on March 2, the same day as New York's presidential primary, and instructed Mordue to set a special election to replace the hold-over Legislature now in office. Last fall's balloting was called off because of a lawsuit that successfully challenged new district lines based on the 2000 census that were to be used in the 2003 elections.

Unless they withdraw this week, all candidates who qualified to run last fall will automatically qualify to run in the special elections, Mordue said. Replacements for candidates who withdraw may be named by committees made up of their supporters.
Primaries will be limited to the 20 districts in which intraparty contests already were expected -- including so-called "opportunity to ballot" primaries in which write-in candidates can run and minor party contests -- and to 10 districts where boundaries were changed in a revised voting map based on the 2000 census. Primaries already were planned in some districts with new boundaries, and at least two districts will have multiple primaries.
New candidates in the redrawn districts must submit petitions to get on the ballot, but with far fewer signatures -- 2.5 percent or 25 enrolled voters of a party in a district, whichever is less -- than normally required.

Candidates may begin circulating petitions, available from the Board of Elections, on Wednesday, and must file them before 5 p.m. Monday.

The plan Mordue proposed Friday was based largely on recommendations from two civil rights groups and county Republicans who won an order for the special elections last week from a federal appellate panel in New York City. His proposal called for a more wide-open process to get on the ballot.

But in objections to that plan, County Attorney Michael Lynch argued that the simplified process would result in "a flood of candidates" and a process that would be "out of control."
Despite the more restrictive ballot access set by Mordue's order Monday, Paul DerOhannesian, who represents Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens and the Albany NAACP, the groups that sued the county over the redistricting plan, called the ruling "a total victory."
"We're very pleased that we are able to get to the special primary and general election that we have fought so hard for, and that this does allow a remedy for the flagrant violation of voter rights that was found by the federal court," DerOhannesian said.
Mordue's schedule follows an order last week by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that a special election should be conducted soon to replace the hold-over Legislature.

Last year's elections were called off as the county awaited a decision from Mordue, who eventually approved revised district lines that added a fourth district in which minorities have the voting strength to elect candidates of their choice. But because Mordue refused to set a special election using that new map, legislators elected in 1999 to four-year terms from districts based on the 1990 census stayed in office.

The Concerned Citizens and NAACP argued that the damage to minority voters was extended and worsened by delaying the election of lawmakers from the revised districts.
"This affirms and upholds the rights of citizens in this county to choose their representatives" rather than live with a hold-over Legislature, Concerned Citizens President Aaron Mair said.

Mair said that his wife, Maryam Mair will likely wage a primary challenge to incumbent Democrat Virginia Maffia-Tobler in the 4th District, which now has a majority of African-American voters, and he hopes to enlist other formerly active African-American Democrats, including Leon Dukes and Nebraska Brace, to run in other Albany districts against black incumbents.

"The voters now need to rise up and make valid the new opportunity for candidates to run and compete for these seats," Mair said. "Voters should avail themselves of this opportunity to elect as many freedom-rider candidates who believe in our democratic process as possible."

Thomas Marcelle, who represented county Republicans in seeking the special election, said he believes a more open process allowing new candidates to run in all 39 districts without filing petitions would have energized an election with a potentially low turnout. Nonetheless, Republicans were glad to see Mordue's decision.

"The good thing about Judge Mordue's plan is that we have a plan," Marcelle said. "We're ready to run."