Gwynette Campbell leads in sanitation election

More than eight months after challenger Gabriel Boxer appeared to win the Sanitary District 1 commissioner’s election over appointed Commissioner Gwynette Campbell, a different result is shaping up.

As of press time, Campbell, who lives in Inwood, had an unofficial 202-vote lead over Boxer after the counting — and challenging — of the roughly 900 absentee ballots that were cast.

After the election last July 11, Boxer, a Hewlett resident, was leading, 395 to 288.

“I’m excited to hear where we are,” Campbell said, “I don’t want to get too excited, because you never know.”

Campbell was appointed last April to the sanitary district’s Board of Commissioners, succeeding Lino Viola, who stepped down.

“It completely reversed itself, once we opened up these ballots,” Tom Garry, the attorney representing the sanitary district, said of the lead change from Boxer to Campbell.

Garry replaced longtime S.D. 1 lawyer Nat Swergold when Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Randy Sue Marber, ruled that Swergold’s representation of both the district and Campbell was a conflict of interest. Allison Lewis now represents Campbell. John Ciampoli is Boxer’s attorney.

Both parties agreed to review the absentee ballots after Marber pushed both sides to put an end to the legal wrangling. Under state election law, a judge can direct an examination of ballots to be viewed by the candidates and their representatives.

Beginning on March 23, the absentee ballots were opened and reviewed by Boxer, Ciampoli, Lewis and Garry. Campbell was not present. If one party objected to a ballot’s legality, it was marked for further review.

Objections could be made based on a variety of factors, including the date the ballot was stamped, a signature that did not appear to match one on file with the district, or a voter who was not registered to vote. In the presence of election inspectors, Garry recommended which ballot should or should not be counted.

During the first day of counting, last Thursday, Ciampoli said that some of the ballots were filled out by people who were not registered to vote, and the signatures on those ballots did not appear legitimate. But whether his claims that those ballots did not comply with election law were enough to change the apparent result remained unclear.

The post-election legal back-and-forth poisoned the relationship between the candidates, according to Campbell. “It’s unfortunate that he always remained mean-spirited about things,” she said, referring to Boxer. “I stayed quiet, and now it is coming to light.”

Boxer was understandably unhappy with the direction the election took. “This election has to be the most corrupt and badly run election in the history of this county,” he said. “The conduct of this election gives us more questions then it does answers. We will ask the court to give us a new election under court supervision, so that it can be done right.”

There is expected to be a meeting on Friday to review ballots that need further investigation. The unofficial results will be presented to Marber on Monday April 3.

“The judge can make a determination on some of the objections and rule one way or another,” Garry said, “and of course that can affect the count.”

Garry said he was optimistic that the ballot count as of March 27 could be enough evidence for Marber to certify a winner on April 3. “Once the judge hears where we are,” he said, “I don’t think there is much the judge needs to rule on with the numbers going in this direction.”