by Thaddeus Flint
Petersburgh resident Andrew Zlotnick, a candidate in the last Berlin School Board election, has officially filed a complaint with the New York State Education Department regarding suspected violations in the May election.
As was previously reported in the May 20 Eastwick Press, Zlotnick had been informed by acting School Board President Beverly Stewart shortly before the polls opened that some of the nominating petitions required by all candidates seeking election might not be valid.
By law, candidates for seats on the School Board must submit a petition to the District before the election. The number of names on the petition requested by the District had been set at 25.
This number turned out to be incorrect. The correct number should have been 27 according to section 2018 of the New York State Education Law which states, “Each petition shall be directed to the clerk of the school district, shall be signed by at least twenty-five qualified voters of the district, or two percent of the voters who voted in the previous annual election of the members of the board of education, whichever is greater…” With 1,344 residents voting in the previous election, the number of petition signatures needed was 26.88, rounded up to 27. Zlotnick said that he had over 60 names on his petition. The other candidates in the election, Frank Zwack, Jim Willis and Rachel Finney, each had less than the legally needed 27 signatures.
Zlotnick had filed an objection to the ballot while the polls were still open on
May 17. However, his objection was subsequently overturned by the Berlin School Board. They stated that “The Board acknowledges an error with respect to its notice for candidates this year but respects the will of the voters who have elected the candidates of their choice…” Zlotnick lost the election to the candidate from Stephentown, Rachel Finney, with a final tally of 273 to 547.
Zlotnick was not impressed with the Board’s decision. He and a write-in candidate from that election, Rebekah Hartman, worked to put together a Petition of Complaint, a task Zlotnick found daunting. “Requiring enough paper to choke a horse,” said Zlotnick. “I find it unbelievable that all this work is required to prove a fact that the Berlin School District BOE has already admitted to,” said Zlotnick.
Zlotnick filed his complaint first with the current Berlin School Board at a special meeting on June 13 and then with the Commissioner of Education, John King, by certified mail on June 14. “Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see how long the Commissioner of Education will take to respond to the Complaint Petition,” said Zlotnick.