HUDSON — Every election district in the county will be open this Tuesday, September 13 from noon to 9 p. m. for primary voting. Depending on the municipality, voters enrolled in the Democratic, Republican, Conservative or Independence parties may participate their party’s primary election. Eligible voters are those who enrolled in the party before mid-October 2010.
Voters who expect to be out of the county on Primary Day can vote in person at the County Board of Elections office at the County Office Building, 401 State Street, via absentee ballot until Monday, September 12 at 5pm. The board is routinely open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and absentee voting can be done during those hours. Additional hours for absentee voting include Thursday, September 8, until 7 p.m. and Saturday, September 10 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
There are countywide races on the Republican and on the Independence Party lines for county judge. Additionally, there is a citywide opportunity-to-ballot race for mayor on the Democratic line.
An opportunity-to-ballot race is one in which no candidate’s name appears on the ballot, providing an opportunity for enrolled Democratic voters, in the case of the City of Hudson, to write in the candidate of their choice. All other primary races similarly offer an opportunity for write-ins, as well.
In Hudson, the Democratic committee’s choice for mayor, Nick Haddad, was not placed on the ballot because of a technical error in filing his nomination as the party’s official candidate. Recently Linda Mussmann announced that she would seek the Democratic line in the November election. Ms. Mussmann has run four times for the position of mayor.
County election Commissioners Virginia Martin, the Democrat, and Jason Nastke, the Republican, said in a release that confirmed that, as New York State is a “voter intent” state, they will recognize as valid votes “reasonable variations in candidates’ names as they may be written in by voters, or slight deviations in where on the ballot the voter writes in the candidate’s name.”
Each ballot provides a separate row, under the party row, that says “Write In.” That is where a write-in candidate’s name should be entered.
Other races include:
*108th Assembly District (Chatham, Kinderhook, New Lebanon, and Stuyvesant), Independence, for judicial delegates and for judicial delegate alternates
*Hudson 1-1, Democratic, for supervisor and for alderman
*Hudson 3-1, Democratic, for supervisor
*Copake, Independence, for Justice
*Gallatin, Republican, for County Committee
*Greenport, Independence, for supervisor and highway superintendent
*Kinderhook, Conservative and Independence, for town justice
*Kinderhook, Independence, for tax collector
*New Lebanon, Independence, for supervisor
*Stockport, Independence, for supervisor and Town Council
*Stuyvesant, Independence, for Supervisor and Town Council.
Advertisements providing pollsite locations and parties involved will appear in local papers.
The Election Board also reminded voters that polling places may have changed. By means of two postcards sent this summer, one of them last week, the board has notified any voter whose polling place has changed and has kept the towns in question apprised of those changes. Those towns include Chatham, Claverack, Copake, Ghent, Greenport, Hudson, Kinderhook, Livingston, Stockport, and Stuyvesant.
Updated election district maps will be posted on the board’s website, columbiacountyny.com/depts/elections/districts.html. The board can be reached at 518 828-3115.