= ]| SINNREICH | KOSAKOFF & M July 12, 2019 Commissioner Jude Seymore Commissioner Babette M. Hall Jefferson County Board of Elections 175 Arsenal St. Watertown, NY 13601 BY FAX AND E-MAIL RE: City of Watertown Non-Partisan Primary Election, June 2019 Dear Commissioners: We represent Allison Crossman, candidate for Mayor of Watertown in the June 2019 Non-Partisan Primary Election. We would like to review the facts surrounding the outcome of this election and the concomitant duty of your Board of Elections to certify a ballot in accordance with the letter of the law and the results of the Primary that you certified on July 3, 2019. ‘The relevant statute was a special law passed to govern elections in the City of Watertown, Chapter 247, NY Laws of 1993. The pertinent part of the statute states: “The Board of Elections shall certify under the hand of its secretary or commissioners the names of the persons who received the largest and next largest number of votes for Mayor ... Courthouse Plaza 267 Carleton Avenue, Suite 301 | Cental lip | NV 11722 “els 621.650.1200 | Fax: 631.650.1207 wwwiskmia.netCertificates shall be in triplicate, one of which shall be filed in the office of the county clerk, another shall be filed and recorded in the office of the city clerk, and the third shall be filed with the board of elections.”, Ch. 247, NY Laws of 1993, Sec. 18, emphasis added. According to your certification of the results of the Primary Election for Mayor the persons receiving the largest and next largest number of votes are: Jeffrey M. Smith received 837 Allison Crossman received ee Cody J. Horbacz received 597 Subsequent to the certification of the numerical tabulations of the results (reflecting the Board’s determinations on any disputed, blank or void ballots), you issued a letter to the City Clerk of Watertown, which in its relevant part states: “The county Board of Elections has until Sept. 12 to certify the general election ballot for city mayor. We are writing today because we- the bipartisan commissioners here- are unable to reach accord about which candidated ought to be certified.” “We do not anticipate resolving our disagreement without outside intervention. If left unattended, the commissioners will certify a general election ballot that has zero mayoral candidates- which seems antithetical to the law’s intent.” We are distressed by your Board’s position on this matter. Clearly the statute anticipated the possibility of a tie for either first and / or second place in the Primary Election. It refers to “persons” which is plural. Thus, certifying three “persons” to the ballot fits with the application of the letter of the law to these facts. Let us look to a prominent example of the generally accepted application ) SEINREICH KOSAKOFF & MESSINA urof the rule at play here. We respectfully draw your attention to the Major League Baseball 2019 statistics for players reflecting such things as win (pitchers), batting average, home runs etc., found at: http://www.espn.com/mlb/statistics. In the American League, the Batting average leaders as of the All-Star break, were: 1. DJ LeMahiew NYY 336 2. Michael Brantley, HOU .324 2. Rafael Devers, BOS 324 4, Tim Anderson, CHW 317 This listing, reflecting the generally accepted application of our language, shows TWO players occupying second place (tied with a .324 average). Another example can be found in the National League Pitching statistics for wins: 1. Zack Greinke, ART 10 1, Stephen Strasburg, WSH 10 1. Hyun-Jin Ryu, LAD 10 1. Brandon Woodruff, MIL 10 5. Max Scherzer, WSH 9 Here there is actually a four-way tie for first place. Each player has an undivided share of the first-place ranking. In the case before your Board two candidates have an undivided share of second place. Both have earned the right to be on the November ballot. Any contrary decision, or an abdication of the Board’s duty to certify the ballot for the General Election, would serve to disenfranchise a large number of voters in Watertown. The law is not vague. The only thing new here is that for the first time since the law was enacted there has been a tie between two candidates. This is not the first time that there has been a tie in an election in this state. A) SINNREICH 1) ROSARGEES MESSINAw