Bard, Board of Elections dispute: See why college claims 'repeated violations' in Red Hook

Bard College filed a complaint against the Dutchess County Board of Elections, alleging it violated the law, after the board's Republican commissioner appointed one poll worker to the college's polling site during the primary election in June, and amid concern that would be repeated during next week's primary and special election.

Democrat Elections Commissioner Hannah Black said the campus, the second polling site in Red Hook District 5 originally created by court order against Republican Elections Commissioner Erik Haight's protests, was the only site in the county staffed with one Republican poll worker and two Democrat poll workers.

Republican Elections Commissioner Erik Haight believes the Bard complaint to be "without merit" stating "The Board of Elections complies with the election law ... as it relates to strict adherence to the minimum inspector requirements per election district."

Bard is accusing the Board of Elections of "repeated violations ... related to equal protection, the right to vote, youth voting rights, disability accessibility, and election law."

The county Board of Elections has spent about $62,037 litigating the prospect of Bard's campus as a polling site since 2020, according to statistics obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request.

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Red Hook District 5 was split between two polling sites, one at the college and one at Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, in 2020 after years of litigation. The court had decided to place a polling site at the college, which had filed a lawsuit claiming the church could not accommodate the voters safely during a pandemic and was not handicap accessible.

Each party will typically assign at least two poll workers to each site to ensure bipartisanship. Poll workers open voting machines, handle abandoned ballots and take action if a machine was to malfunction.

"It compromises the checks and balances of the poll site," said Black, who has sought assistance from the state in the matter as the special election draws near. She has also requested the Republican side assign the necessary staffing for the site.

New York State law says staffing should be "equally divided between the major political parties." However, it also states districts with two voting machines should have two clerks and four inspectors. The college and the church were each assigned one voting machine in June.

"Equipment and personnel are established under the law by election district not by poll site," Haight stated.

The complaint also states neither District 5 site had a handicap accessible voting machine during general elections in 2020 and 2021, and said there is no indication one will be made available during the upcoming elections, even though the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College is a handicap accessible location.

"These violations by the Dutchess County Board of Elections, particularly Election Commissioner Erik Haight, comprise an unmistakable pattern of depriving citizens of their right to vote and creating impediments to voting, particularly for youth and the disabled," Bard stated in its complaint to the New York State Board of Elections Enforcement Counsel.

Poll workers who worked at the Bard site in June stated the lack of staffing created a stressful environment and made it difficult for them to do their job even though voter attendance was low.

"It seems to directly contradict the Dutchess County training I have been required to attend annually, where the emphasis is on equal representation of political parties in all aspects of the voting process and voting accessibility," stated Erin Cannan, Bard College's Vice President of Civic Engagement, who has served as a poll worker for over a decade.

Years of argument

In October 2020, Dutchess County Supreme Court Judge Maria Rosa ordered the Town of Red Hook’s District 5 polling site moved from the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist to Bard College’s Bertelsmann Campus Center, in response to concerns voters would not be able to adequately social distance at the church.

The decision, less than two weeks before the election, was a reversal of her ruling that the site could not be changed — she cited an affidavit from Haight advising that altering the plans could confuse the district’s voters — after the Board of Elections the following day opted to move the site for Red Hook’s Districts 7 and 8.

“The basis for this court’s decision and order has now been eliminated since the primary factor identified by Commissioner Haight and relied upon by this court was simply untrue,” she wrote. “Apparently there was, and is, time to move the polling place for District 5 in Red Hook.”

The elections commissioners agreed on splitting the site in fall 2020 after weeks of last-minute legal arguments in court stemmed around safety and accessibility of the church amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February 2021, the county's election board could not come to a decision as to where the polling location should be located. Haight had concluded that since no decision could be reached, the polling site would revert back to the 2019 location. Bard students, staff and president filed a suit to block Haight from reverting the polling place.

A few days before the election in 2021, the state appellate court unanimously affirmed Rosa's decision to split the district's embattled polling site between the college and the church should be carried over as precedent moving forward, rather than reverting to 2019.

Saba Ali: Sali1@poughkeepsiejournal.com: 845-451-4518: @MsSabaAli.

This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: Bard files Board of Elections complaint over Red Hook site