Residents can watch oral arguments Thursday in the Village of Pelham Manor’s appeal of a state court ruling ordering a ballot referendum be held on changing the village’s election day.
The Pelham Manor case is eighth on the docket for the four-judge panel of the Appellate Division’s Second Department in Brooklyn. The court sits at 10 a.m., though exactly what time the election case will come up is not known. The live stream from the courtroom can be watched here.
Based on court documents, attorneys for both sides in the referendum battle have asked for 15 minutes to make their cases, as have each of the lawyers for the two Westchester County election commissioners, who are on opposite sides of the appeal. Douglas Colety, the Republican commissioner, backs the Pelham Manor in its effort to block the referendum, while Democratic Commissioner Tajian Nelson supports the effort to put the proposition on the ballot. The appellate division justices hearing the case are Robert Miller, Paul Wooten, Deborah Dowling and Janice Taylor.
In the appeal, Pelham Manor is seeking to reverse state Supreme Court Judge Linda Jamieson’s decision on July 30 that a referendum on changing the village’s election day must be put on the ballot Nov. 5. Jamieson threw out all of the reasons Pelham Manor Village Clerk Lindsey Luft (who is also village manager) gave for ruling invalid the 801-signature petition calling for the public vote.
Erica Winter, an organizer of the petition drive, delivered the petition on July 1 to Luft, who in her role as village clerk reviewed and rejected the petition four days later, on July 5. Winter and Pelham Democratic Town Committee Chairwoman Allison Frost brought suit July 8 against Luft, the Pelham Manor Board of Trustees and the Westchester Board of Elections seeking to reverse Luft’s decision.
Winter and Frost won the case, prompting Pelham Manor’s appeal on Aug. 2. The five-member all-Republican village board is opposed to the referendum’s goal of shifting Pelham Manor elections from the third Tuesday in March to election day in November.