Skip to main content

Mayor's Petition Challenge Could Knock Graham Off Village Ballot

Mon, 05/23/2022 - 11:18
Arthur Graham's nominating petitions had 78 signatures; Mayor Jerry Larsen is challenging 38.
Durell Godfrey

East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen has filed an objection to Arthur (Tiger) Graham's nominating petition for village trustee for the June 21 election. 

Mr. Graham, an incumbent trustee, would be the only member of the Fish Hooks Party on the ballot. In the race for two open seats on the board, he would face two first-time candidates running on Mr. Larsen's NewTown Party line -- Sarah Amaden and Carrie Doyle.

To appear on the village ballot, a candidate must garner 50 signatures of registered voters within the village. Mr. Graham submitted a nominating petition with 78 signatures; Mr. Larsen has objected to 38 of them for varying reasons. If his objection is successful, Mr. Graham's petition would only have 40 signatures, and he would be knocked off the ballot. 

On the form sent to the Suffolk County Board of Elections, Mayor Larsen had to give a reason for his objections. The form lists 12 possible objections; someone on the mayor's team wrote in a 13th: "subscribing witness witnessed own signature -- entire sheet invalid."

Should that objection stand, it could affect a petition circulated by Mr. Graham's wife, Katherine, and another circulated by Maureen Bluedorn. There were 18 signatures combined on those two petitions.

In addition, Mr. Larsen claims that 10 of the signatures are invalid because residents not only signed Mr. Graham's petition, but also a petition for the NewTown Party candidates. A voter cannot sign two separate petitions for candidates running for the same office. He is challenging eight other signatures because they are "illegible" and two others because the voters were not registered in the village.

Pam Bennett, the village clerk, was to deliver the objection to the board of elections on Monday. An employee for the board of elections said it is possible the petition could be reviewed and a ruling made by Wednesday. The same employee said an objection like this was very uncommon and that the board sees "one or two a year, if that."

Should the board rule in Mr. Larsen's favor, Mr. Graham could wage a write-in campaign.

In 2020, Mr. Graham ran for mayor against Mr. Larsen and Barbara Borsack, a former village trustee.

Villages

Owl's Death Prompts Call for Bird-Friendly Building

Window strikes kill up to a billion birds annually and rank up there with cats and habitat destruction as the leading causes of recent steep declines. After the recent death of a much-watched Eurasian eagle-owl that was set loose from the Central Park Zoo, a bill calling for bird-friendly building measures has been revived in the New York Assembly and Senate.

Mar 28, 2024

Architect’s Descendants Visit East Hampton Gem

Michele L’Hommedieu Hofmann had no idea until retiring last fall and starting to research her family history how prominent a role her great-great-grandfather James H. L’Hommedieu had played in Long Island’s late-19th-century architecture. On a trip to New York that included a stop at an East Hampton house he designed for Robert Southgate Bowne, a founder of the Maidstone Club and first president of the Long Island Rail Road, she and her family got a crash course in L’Hommedieu’s work.

Mar 28, 2024

Item of the Week: Gardiner Family Gossip From 1889

On July 16, 1889, while staying in Lenox, Mass., Sarah Diodati Gardiner Thompson wrote to her daughter Sarah Thompson Gardiner, who was vacationing at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Family news was top of mind.

Mar 28, 2024

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.