Padavan vs. Gennaro decision drags on

BY VICTOR G. MIMONI

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 7:29 PM EST

In one of the longest electoral sagas in New York history, the 11th District race between incumbent State Senator Frank Padavan and City Councilmember James Gennaro for the seat in northeast Queens inches closer to resolution.

With all but 252 disputed ballots counted and Padavan leading by 580 votes, last month’s maneuvering has been over some 1,750 paper ballots that were first rejected as invalid by a bipartisan panel of clerks at the Queens Board of Elections (BOE) in November.

Republicans claim that the law has been followed and Democrats have had their chance to review the rejected ballots for mistakes and argue that they should be “rehabilitated.”

Lawyers for Gennaro have insisted on another round for the rejected ballots to be reviewed, calling them “votes.”

At a hearing on Wednesday, December 10, State Supreme Court Judge Kevin Kerrigan sided with them and ordered the BOE to conduct the review.

Republicans went to the Appellate Division and on Wednesday, December 23, a four-judge panel declared that “the Supreme Court does not have the jurisdiction to intervene in the process” and ordered the central BOE to vote on the results of the Queens employees’ efforts.

A week later, the city BOE Commissioners voted 7-to-3 for a “final determination” rejecting the invalid ballots.

The parties returned to Kerrigan’s courtroom on Tuesday, January 6, where the judge was presented with a 50-page Republican show-cause order demanding that he lift his original restraining order, so that the BOE can certify Padavan as the winner.

Kerrigan set Wednesday, January 14, for the Democrats to file a response.

“They got what they wanted,” snapped a Republican lawyer who demanded to remain anonymous, “They’ve kept Frank Padavan out of his seat until after the senate leadership is chosen.”