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Vassar students accuse Dutchess County GOP elections commissioner of voter suppression
Mid-Hudson News reports that a group of students at Vassar College has submitted a letter to the Dutchess County Executive and Legislature, warning of alleged voter suppression by the Dutchess County Republican Elections Commissioner. Student leaders of Democracy Matters, backed by the Andrew Goodman Foundation, League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Region, and Dutchess Student Voting Coalition, sent a letter to County Executive Marcus Molinaro and Legislature Chair Gregg Pulver on October 24, claiming the Dutchess Board of Elections is in “clear violation” of state law by failing to designate an on-campus polling site at Vassar College in the town of Poughkeepsie. The League of Women Voters noted Republican Commissioner Erik J. Haight has a history of “well-documented years-long ongoing efforts to suppress the youth vote in Dutchess County.” Haight has had well-publicized disagreements with Bard College over inadequate and unconstitutional polling facilities for campus residents. In various student voting rights lawsuits successfully brought by Bard College over the last decade, Haight’s refusal to act cost Dutchess County taxpayers more than $120,000 in legal fees. According to the Vassar students' letter, the group is asking the county to designate a campus site by the end of this week. At present, student voters in Ward 6, Election Districts 3 and 4 must walk off campus to the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority, while those in Ward 6, Election District 2 must take a shuttle to an off-campus polling site on New Hackensack Road. County buses do not serve the latter location. BOE Democratic Elections Commissioner Hannah Black proposed a central polling site at Vassar for the fall election that would provide voting access for all three election districts that currently cut through the campus, while keeping open all existing off-campus polling sites. Haight said Black's proposal is prohibited by election law. "I have repeatedly asked her for a solution that complies with the entirety of the law and she’s failed to do so,” he said. Read the full story at Mid-HudsonNews [dot] com.