Sanitary District 1 in court April 25

After a four-day review of the roughly 900 absentee ballots from the July 11 Sanitary District 1 commissioner’s election between Hewlett resident Gabriel Boxer and Inwood’s Gwynette Campbell, there remains no clear cut victor.

Boxer led 395 to 288 after Election Night counting. Now the unofficial lead is Campbell 762 to 554.

In an effort to end the protracted battle, all the parties — Boxer, Campbell and the sanitation district — went to court to present the results to Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Randy Sue Marber on April 3. Marber was expected to rule on the results.

Instead the legal wrangling continues as John Ciampoli, Boxer’s attorney, still questions the ballots he reviewed at the S.D 1 headquarters on March 23, 24, 27 and 28.

“There are too many things wrong here,” Ciampoli said, “if Mr. Boxer had never brought me along, they would’ve counted this stuff.”

The next court date is April 25.

Ciampoli is referring to the more than 700 absentee ballots he objected to during the four-day long review. Objections ranged from the date a ballot was stamped, a signature not appearing to match on file with the district or a voter registered to vote.

Ciampoli said he is putting forward motions ahead of the next hearing to disqualify ballots that shouldn’t be counted toward the final vote.

“How is it that people who were not registered to vote got ballots?” Ciampoli questioned, “I would be happy to have them certify the basis on the machines because I win.”

Representing Campbell is Allison Lewis, who was needed after longtime sanitation district lawyer Nat Swergold was disqualified for representing both Campbell and the district. The judge found that to be a conflict of interest. Tom Garry represents the sanitary district.

The turn in the counting has Boxer upset. He had previously stated the election was corrupt and had asked the court to grant him a new election under court supervision before the review took place. He still stands by his words.

“The district reviewed and ruled upon over 700 of Mr. Boxer’s objections and counted the valid case ballots of hundreds of district residents,” Garry wrote in an email. “The canvass of these ballots have resulted in Commissioner Campbell winning the election by over 200 votes. Mr. Boxer now has the burden of convincing the court not to count hundreds of valid votes.”

As of press time, Lewis did not return calls seeking comment.

“He’s a patient man,” Ciampoli said, speaking about Boxer, “he realizes there is something fundamentally wrong and that he understands he is the victim of what went wrong here.”