TOWN OF THOMPSON, NY — Before the election on November 3, Bill Rieber, the incumbent supervisor of the Town of Thompson who was running again for the office, told his supporters that it had come to his attention that “hundreds of questionable absentee votes from closed and boarded-up camps and colonies in Thompson have been submitted to the Sullivan County Board of Elections.”

He wrote in a social media post: “Suddenly, new voters have registered and completed absentee ballot applications claiming that they reside in at least seven Town of Thompson camps and bungalow colonies. All of the addresses where these ballots are being cast are obviously closed and uninhabited. Councilman Scott Mace and myself have confirmed over 130 absentee ballots have been released by the board of elections and most were delivered to the old Raleigh Hotel.”

In fact, there are some 400 absentee ballots in the Town of Thomson race and at least 137 of them are being challenged by Mace, which may impact the outcome of the election. At press time, a judge had blocked the counting of those ballots and a hearing on the matter has been scheduled for November 12.

Before the absentee ballots were counted, incumbent councilman Peter Briggs, who ran on the Democratic, Conservative and Independence lines, had the most votes, with 1,489; Mace, who ran on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines, had 1,395; Jay Rubin, who ran on the Republican and Reform the Building Department lines, had 1,161; and Vic Marinello, who ran on the Democratic and Equal Justice lines, had 697.

It is significant that Rubin ran on the Reform the Building Department line because observers say that as supervisor, Rieber has moved to toughen building department enforcement, a move that would have a significant impact on the summer Hasidic community.

Mace issued a statement saying, “After having reviewed the the voter registration list, absentee ballots, and visited the various addresses in question multiple times, I believe many people have voted who do not meet the residency requirements to do so.”

Members of the Hasidic community who registered as voters in the county with addresses that were bungalow colonies have figured in past court challenges. In the election in the Town of Bethel in November 2009, the court ruled that some 90 voters who had registered giving bungalow colonies as their addresses were not eligible to vote.

In another case in 2013 involving second-home owners who were not Hasidic, and who did not own year-round homes but who did own seasonal co-ops, the Sullivan County Supreme Court ruled that most of the challenged votes did not have a right to vote in Sullivan County. That decision was overturned by the appellate court, which ruled the co-op owners did have the right to vote in the county, and the fact that their co-ops were shut down in the winter did not alter that right.

In the current case in Thompson, it’s not clear if the case will turn on whether the challenged voters own bungalows or co-ops here or on other factors.