SCHENECTADY — After losing last week’s Democratic primary election to incumbent Gary McCarthy, Schenectady mayoral hopeful Marion Porterfield has come up short in her bid to run for the post on the Working Families Party Line for November’s general election.
But Porterfield said Wednesday she filed a complaint earlier this week with the state Board of Elections challenging the validity of Ed Varno’s candidacy. He is a retired city firefighter who defeated her 29-26 in that party’s primary, according to final results Wednesday from the Schenectady County Board of Elections.
Darlene Harris, the GOP commissioner, said the office had not received any absentee ballots in the mail by Wednesday’s deadline. Harris said a losing candidate seeking to challenge the outcome of a primary election has 10 days from the election to file a lawsuit.
Porterfield contends Varno did not have a campaign committee filed with the state when she last checked on Monday.
“I make that he’s a political plant, and the only reason that this was done is to make sure that I did not get the line,” she said.
Porterfield said Varno’s name ended up on the ballot only after election petitions were collected for another candidate who then declined the candidacy. The Board of Elections identified that candidate as John Savage.
“They collected signatures for one name they thought they would recognize and then substituted it for another name, so there was never any petitions actually collected for Ed Varno” she added. “What’s being looked into is what is a valid declination … the reason for the declination, I don’t know that the Board of Elections requires there to be a specific reason for the declination.”
Varno did not return a call Wednesday afternoon seeking comment.
Jennifer Wilson, a spokeswoman with the state Board of Elections, said Wednesday a potential candidate does not…
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