BUFFALO (WBEN) - On Friday afternoon, Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns met with Board of Elections Commissioners Ralph Mohr and Jeremy Zellner to discuss his concerns about the possibility of the Green Light Law making it possible for illegal immigrants to vote.
As Kearns says he was directed to not prevent the processing of suspect voter registration applications, he wanted to ensure that the BOE would take steps to help mitigate the chances of unlawful applications slipping through the cracks.
After nearly an hour of deliberation, questions and confusion, the BOE approved a policy to institute a five-day waiting period for processing applications for voter registrations.
"We got the Board of Commissioners to delay anyone from registering for five days, and I think that's an important victory until we get some type of clarification on the Niagara County court case dealing with election law," said Kearns. "We asked for a procedure, and they did put something in place, but they also did say that they didn't feel as though they had the authority - this isn't something that they should be doing - so I think there's going to be a bigger conversation about this among all of the commissioners throughout the State of New York."
As this is a relatively new law, there are several grey areas that really haven't been explored too extensively, and those ambiguities led to some confusion regarding some of the finer points of the law itself. Kearns says there would be less confusion if the state had approached county clerks about the measure from the beginning.
"I think it's a big victory for the integrity of elections," said Kearns regarding the newly approved procedure. "If one person registers to vote who is not allowed to be a part of the democratic process, we have to stop that person from voting. They have now given me the authority, for anyone who comes in, to report those people who are coming in and registering to vote, I will get that information to the Board of Elections."