The Rockland GOP has confirmed candidate Walter Wettje is appealing Judge Victor Alfieri’s ruling that discarded six absentee ballots in the Orangetown supervisor’s election.

The GOP is filing its appeal in the NYS Court of Appeals Friday and the court anticipates it will decide whether to hear the case next week. Currently the incumbent Andy Stewart (D) has a two vote lead. That’s right, two votes separate the candidates out of over 12,000 ballots cast.

Wettje said, “I will pursue all necessary legal avenues to overturn yesterday’s decision by Acting State Supreme Court Judge Victor Alfieri that denied some Orangetown citizens their civil right to vote. Andy Stewart’s legal efforts clearly targeted voters who demonstrated an undeniable intent to vote yet their absentee ballots were disqualified. I will vigorously fight for these ballots to be restored to the count.

“The disenfranchised voters include a 91-year-old World War II veteran and his 90-year-old wife, who both filled out their ballots correctly but mistakenly signed each other’s envelopes. He fought for our freedom against the German army in France but his right to vote is now being denied because of a technicality cited by Andy Stewart that isn’t consistent with the intent of the law. There are several other similar examples of this in Judge Alfieri’s ruling.”

Andy Stewart rebutted, “It is more than a little hypocritical for Mr. Wettje to accuse me of attempting to disenfranchise voters since the lawsuit he filed, had it been successful, would have prevented over 40 voters from having their ballots counted. In contrast, my attorney challenged only a dozen ballots that exhibited serious legal defects.”