BUFFALO (WBEN) - Erie County Board of Elections Commissioners Ralph Mohr and Jeremy Zellner have decided that Mayor Byron Brown's petition to get his name on the November ballot is invalid, meaning his name will not appear on the ballot, at least for now.
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Counsel for the mayor, Attorney Jerry Goldfeder, argued two things - the first being that the filing deadline date to appear on the ballot, which was set by the state legislature, was set too early. Goldfeder's second claim was that the Erie County Board of Elections didn't have the authority to reject Brown's petition because it's a matter that should be left for a court to decide.
However, Republican Commissioner Ralph Mohr disagreed with both of those claims.
"You heard the exchange we had here with the counsel - he believed our authority was limited only to what was on the face of the ballot," said Mohr. "The board, at least in the 28 years that I've been here, has consistently ruled that we have to take into account the entire election law, and with respect to that, we cannot ignore the filing deadline dates."
Democratic Commissioner Jeremy Zellner argued that it would set a dangerous precedent to allow candidates to file past deadlines.
"If I have someone showing up tomorrow with petitions for every office in this county, we would have utter chaos here if we start to accept things past deadlines that are set by the New York State Legislature months in advance," said Zellner.
The general consensus, however, is that Friday's ruling by the Board of Elections was merely a formality - Mohr even suggesting that he suspects this issue would have gone to court no matter how the board ruled.
In reaction to the news, Mayor Byron Brown said he wasn't surprised by the board's decision.
"The Board of Elections made a determination today that we respectfully disagree with," said Brown Friday afternoon. "We will continue to pursue our legal options. We submitted a petition with more than five-times the required signatures - over 3,700 signatures - over 3,700 residents of the City of Buffalo saying they want to support my candidacy for mayor."