Over the past several months this blog has reported on the failure of the Erie County Board of Elections (BOE) to do its job in reporting on the apportionment of voter registrations as they apply to the eleven districts of the Erie County Legislature. The Board has also failed to certify the results of the June primaries that included some contests in legislative districts.
It should be noted that while the Board is by law a bi-partisan public agency headed by both Democratic and Republican Commissioners, the failure to do what it is legally required to do in the current instance rests solely with the Republican Commissioner, Ralph Mohr, who has been at the Board for decades. Two courts now, including the State Supreme Court on Tuesday, disagree with his decisions.
The County Legislature in December 2021 approved a new plan for redrawing its districts following the 2020 federal census. County Executive Mark Poloncarz subsequently signed the bill into law. The new lines were set to run the elections for 2023 through 2031. The Board proceeded accordingly until Mohr, just before petitioning was to begin for the 2023 elections, filed a suit in federal court challenging the lines that were drawn and asked the court to redo the districts. Judge Lawrence Vilardo determined that Mohr lacked standing. He was allowed to amend and try again and the second time around he still lacked standing.
Subsequently the primary elections were held on June 27th and the results were published on the Board's website. The normal process after a primary is for the Commissioners of the Board, soon after the primary, to jointly certify the results. That certification in turn helps set the November election ballot. Mohr refused to certify the primary results even though his Democratic counterpart, Jeremy Zellner, was ready to do so.
Then on September 8th a new lawsuit was filed in State Supreme Court once again raising the issue of the legislative districts. The suit was brought by County Legislator John Mills, a second Republican candidate for the Legislature, and a Republican registered voter. It challenged the efforts of Commissioner Zellner to proceed with the Board's responsibilities concerning the November elections for the County Legislature. Military ballots have already been sent out.
On Tuesday State Supreme Court Justice Amy Martoche ruled that the Board must certify the results of the primaries and that this latest legal action was filed too late to affect the 2023 elections. The attorney for Zellner, Craig Bucki, is seeking to have the new district lines confirmed. Attorney Jerry Schad is intervening on behalf of voters asking the Judge to rule on the redistricting. Pending a final decision by Justice Martoche the BOE is ready to publish enrollment data and maps related to the legislative districts.
The politics of all this time and effort (and public money spent) seems to raise a couple questions:
- Do the actions of Election Commissioner Ralph Mohr represent the position of the Erie County Republican Committee (ECRC) concerning the management of the Board of Elections and the efforts of Mohr to scuttle legislative re-districting and the elections for the Erie County Legislature?
- Are Mohr's public actions in some way related to his or the ECRC's efforts on behalf of the candidacy of Jim Malczewski, the appointed legislator in the 10th district? Malczewski lost both his Republican and Conservative primaries to Lindsay Lorigo, the daughter-in-law of County Conservative Party Chairman Ralph Lorigo. Those primaries were rough and tumble and left the two parties at loggerheads with each other. Failing to certify the primary results certainly did not make Ralph Lorigo happy.
Justice Martoche's pending ruling on the latest legal action offers an opportunity to clarify and mandate the responsibilities of Ralph Mohr at the BOE.
Stay tuned.
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