Town of Newburgh seeks dismissal of voting rights lawsuit

GOSHEN - The Town of Newburgh has filed a motion in state Supreme Court asking a justice to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges the town's at-large method of electing Town Board members violates state law.

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that the at-large system, under which all town residents vote for all four board members, prevents Black and Hispanic voters from electing candidates of their choice.

The lawsuit was filed in state Supreme Court on March 26 by town residents Oral Clarke, Romance Reed, Dorothy Flourney, Grace Perez, Peter Ramon and Ernest Tirado.

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They cited the New York Voting Rights Act, adopted in 2022, which seeks to ensure that all racial, ethnic and language minority groups have an equal opportunity to participate in the state's electoral process.

But that does not happen in the town of Newburgh, the plaintiffs said, and the at-large voting system is one of the reasons. According to figures previously supplied by one of their attorneys, the town has never elected a Black or Hispanic member to the Town Board, despite the fact the town is 14.6% Black and 23.6% Hispanic.

The plaintiffs have suggested several alternate methods of electing the board members: by establishing voting districts, or using ranked choice or cumulative voting.

After the town was notified of the potential challenge to the at-large voting system by lawyers representing the plaintiffs, in a letter sent in late January, the Town Board voted on March 15 to hire a law firm to evaluate the at-large system and determine whether it complies with the voting rights act.

In its motion to dismiss, the town said it was entitled to a 90-day "safe harbor" period after that vote, during which the plaintiffs could take no further legal action.

However, the plaintiffs filed their suit on March 26, just 11 days after the Town Board vote.

"The court should thus dismiss this premature lawsuit," the town said in its motion. "Given plaintiffs' violation of the (New York Voting Rights Act's) safe harbor, if they still want to bring their lawsuit, they must wait until 90 days after the dismissal of this lawsuit to have any lawful ability to sue."

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When they filed their lawsuit, attorneys for the plaintiffs said the Town Board's March 15 resolution contained no timetable for action, giving them what the attorneys called an indefinite deliberation period.

But the town responded that their resolution did contain a schedule: They must consider a proposal for complying with the voting rights act within 10 days of finding out there is a potential violation of the law; and they must hold two public hearings within 30 days to solicit public input on that proposal. The completed proposal must be submitted to the state's Civil Rights Bureau — a division of the state Attorney General's office — within 90 days.

Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Reach him at mrancall@th-record.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Newburgh asks for dismissal of lawsuit alleging illegal elections