The Town’s case for local early voting moves forward in state Supreme Court following a judge’s issuance Tuesday of an order to show cause.
The directive, signed by the Hon. David T. Reilly, instructs the Suffolk County Board of Elections and commissioners Nicholas LaLota and Anita Katz to submit their arguments for why the court should not find that their refusal to establish an early voting site in the Town of Shelter Island:
- is arbitary, capricious, void, and illegal, and
- is violative of the rights of the petitioner and the citizens of Shelter Island pursuant to the Equal Protection provisions of the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York
And,
- why the court should not order the BOE “to establish an early voting site for the November 3, 2020 general election in the Town of Shelter Island” and order “such other, further, and different relief as to the court may seem just, proper, and equitable”.
Judge Reilly set October 15, 9:30 AM as the deadline for the BOE to respond.
The case for local early voting
The Town’s outside counsel, Vincent Messina Jr. — of the Sayville-based firm Messina, Perillo and Hill LLP — notes that early voting was popular here when it was rolled out in 2019. In fact, 40 percent of Island voters took part in early voting.
Messina argued in his petition to the court in the Article 78 proceeding that the decision not to allow early voting here amounts to an illegal poll tax.
By singling out the water-bound community, the Suffolk County BOE violates the rights of Island voters to equal protection under the New York State and U.S. constitutions, the petition says.
The BOE, Messina argues, based its decision to not continue early voting here in 2020 in large part on the fact that Shelter Island is accessible only by ferry services that do not run 24 hours per day.
“A fact which the Suffolk County Board of Elections claimed cause ‘logistical issues,'” Messina wrote. “However, this was also the case in 2019, when an early voting site was placed on the Island.”
The BOE also suggests that Island voters can participate in early voting by taking part at other locations in Suffolk County, Messina noted, “ignoring the fact that such locations are only accessible to Shelter Island residents after paying a mandatory fee for the ferry to the mainland.”
The BOE has, in effect, transferred the “logistical issues” from its own staff to all the residents of the Island.
“Voters who cannot afford this fee or cannot travel by ferry are deprived of the ability to vote as a result” of the BOE’s action, Messina argued.
What the law says
New York State election law guarantees access to early voting, relying on county election officials to decide where to place polling locations.
In their response to Town letters urging reconsideration of their decision to exclude Shelter Island this year, the BOE commissioners indicate it was disproportionately expensive to host early voting on Shelter Island.
The 2019 locations were picked, the commissioners wrote, on a “trial basis only” and that the BOE adjusted the “number and location of polls sites to maximize access to a greater number of voters.”
But, Messina says, the state law provides that “polling places for early voting shall be located so that voters in the county have adequate and equitable access, taking into consideration population density, travel time to the polling place, proximity to other early voting poll sites, public transportation routes, commuter traffic patterns and such other factors the board of elections deems appropriate.”
The BOE claims that Shelter Island residents “are closer in proximity to Southold Early voting site than many of their East End neighbors residing in Greenport, East Marion, Orient and Orient Point,” according to a letter the commissioners sent to the Town on September 11.
“The same holds true when considering their proximity to the early voting site on the South Fork, which is located in East Hampton, when compared to the residents of Montauk,” the letter says.
The BOE said the voting site on Shelter Island in 2019 “caused significant logistical issues for the Board which was required to staff the site 24/7 for the entire nine-day period.” The site, the BOE wrote, was also “not practical for non-residents.”
For more details, view this Gazette post about the initial Article 78 filing.
