COURT RULES HAYON ON BALLOT FOR 44th COUNCIL SEAT

Court did not address issue of possible alteration of Notice Letter from BOE to GOP Candidate Hayon prior to his filing an Amended Cover Sheet --- Justice Schmidt simply found that Hayon amended his cover sheet in reliance upon certain BOE records and files, and that as amended his petition was in substantial compliance with the BOE requirements 

By his Decision and Order of August 9, 2013, Justice David Schmidt directed the Board of Elections to place Joseph Hayon on the Republican Primary Election Ballot for the primary election to be held on September 10, 2013; he denied Hayon’s invalidating petition directed at David Greenfield’s Independence Party signatures and ordered that Greenfield’s name appear on the Independence Party Primary Election Ballot for the primary election to be held on September 10, 2013.

On the key points raised in Hayon’s validating petition, the Court credited both the BOE witness and Mr. Hayon. Although the Court acknowledged that the BOE practices and procedures were followed to mail out a letter concerning an error in the number of volumes and description of volumes, Mr. Hayon did attempt to correct his cover sheet and he did so in reliance upon various BOE documents and records to the extent that he had reasonably seen and understood them. Furthermore, any defect on the amended cover sheet was excusable, because it did not cause any confusion at the BOE, which never credited Hayon with the extra volumes. Since the liberalized standard is to validate petitions that contain a sufficient number of signatures, Hayon’s Republican petition should be validated because it was in substantial compliance and contained the requisite number of signatures.