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Absentee Ballot Handling Application Was Not Timely
Dear Editor,
In the past, we have relied on our Cold Spring Village Clerk, Mary Saari, to be fair. What happened this time?
On Monday, February 26, 2007, more than three weeks prior to election day, we delivered by hand our absentee ballot applications to Ms. Saari. On that date, she asked us whether the address we expected to be at on election day was our "regular and daily place of business" out of the county. We replied that we were retired and therefore didn't have a regular and daily place of business. She ignored our answer, declaring that she would check the law. And she kept referring to our "regular and daily place of business." We repeatedly corrected her.
In an envelope postmarked March 9, 2007, Ms. Saari rejected our request for absentee ballots and sent us a copy of the Village Law. The portion of this law that she quoted had nothing to do with our particular fact pattern. After speaking with Seymour W. Pustilnik she finally changed her mind and mailed our absentee ballots to us.
Unfortunately, the absentee ballots she mailed were in an envelope postmarked March 15, 2007, reaching us on March 17, 2007, a Saturday. They arrived too late to be used with assurance for the election on March 20, 2007. So we, two senior citizens, were forced to change our plans, and, with great difficulty, came in to vote.
Are we the only residents of Cold Spring Village who were deprived of our rights to an absentee ballot by Ms. Saari?
Phyllis and Seymour
Pustilnik Cold Spring
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