Defense Fund

Friends,

As you may be aware, election day is over but the post-election battle for the office of Supervisor/Mayor has just begun. There were a total of over 2,200 voters who attempted to vote for me as a write-in candidate this election – 78 of those votes were in the wrong column for a different office and will not count. The current Mayor only has 1,987 votes. 67% of the electorate voted for someone other than the current Mayor.

A lawsuit has been filed against me by the current Mayor seeking to disqualify me and to prevent the Board of Elections from counting any votes that have been cast for me due to the term limits referendum that was voted on in the same November election. While the law is clear that such term limits do not have retroactive effect, the lawsuit must be defended as well as any appeal.

Additionally, we are also battling with the Board of Elections (BOE) over their highly questionable rulings on the validity of your write-in vote. They have ruled that up to 140 votes that include “Ron,” “Belmont,” “Ronnie Belmont,” “Ronny Belmont,” or “R. Belmont” and about a dozen other misspellings of my first or last name presently do not count as a vote for me despite clear voter intent that the vote was intended for me.

It is shocking how both Commissioners of the BOE are running afoul of clear voter intent and the liberal rules that are in place for counting write-in votes. The rules clearly state that writing either the first or last name of the candidate is sufficient, yet the Commissioners have refused to count a ballot that said "Ron" or "Belmont" nor most of the other spelling errors or penmanship issues. We have commenced the process to get into Court to have the Judge validate all those 140 votes for me that the BOE is refusing to count.

To protect your vote and to stop the disenfranchisement of everyone who not only voted for me but all those who voted in the Supervisor/Mayor election, your assistance on fighting these two battles is needed. My campaign was a grass-roots effort from the first day I announced my campaign for Supervisor/Mayor and we are not done yet. We need your support to ensure that democracy is protected in Harrison.

To the extent any funds raised exceed the legal fees incurred, I will donate any excess funds to the South East Consortium, a charitable cause that is near and dear to my heart.