SH Candidates Make Official Announcement, Say Petitions Being Challenged

Three candidates, running on an independent ticket in Sleepy Hollow, made it official on Sunday.

Mayoral candidate Daniel Scott and trustee candidates Sumantha Sedor and Jack Gasko announced their campaign on the steps of Sleepy Hollow Village Hall.

"We've called you here to symbolize the government that we want to bring to Sleepy Hollow," Scott said. "We want to bring the people back to Village Hall. We want to get you back involved in your government."

The candidates are challenging incumbents which include Mayor Ken Wray, Trustee Bruce Campbell, Trustee Evelyn Stupel and Trustee Barbara Carr.

According to Scott, Village Attorney Janet Gandolfo and Mayor Ken Wray have filed general objections with the petitions Scott, Sedor and Gasko filed with the County Board of Elections.

"We filed a petition to run and get elected and we were surprised that the current Mayor, and the Village Attorney, filed objections to that petition," he said.

A general objection is a basically a notice that Gandolfo and Wray will be seeking to throw out certain signatures on the all three candidate's petitions. We were unable to independently verify the claim through the Westchester County Board of Elections on Friday afternoon.

Wray confirmed on Monday that he, as a candidate, and Gandolfo, as chair of the Democratic Party in Sleepy Hollow, had filed objections to the petitions.

"We just noticed an unusual number of irregularities in their petitions," Wray said. "I take the electoral process very seriously and sloppy work should not be accepted."

He said there were numerous signatures made by people who were unregistered to vote and signatures that didn't match voter registration cards.

"They will say we're challenging on technicalities, but technicalities are what we have to deal with every day," Wray said. "You have to pay attention to detail. If you don't how are you going to deal with GM or the budget."

Earlier, Scott said that the group had aimed to get at least 200 signatures each – you only need 100 legitimate signatures to appear on the ballot as a petition candidate.

Whether the independents' candidacies will be declared invalid remains to be seen, but Scott said that the challenges set a bad precedent moving forward into local election season.

"It goes to show you this administration doesn't want people involved in the village," he said. "They don't even want to give you an option for a candidate... They want to take away your choice and your right to vote."

There will be a candidate meet and greet at the Eagle's Club on Feb. 26 from 3-6 p.m. You can email the independents at: bringthelegendback@gmail.com