POUGHKEEPSIE – Less than a month after Dutchess County Comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair, a Democrat, issued subpoenas to the Dutchess County Board of Elections (BOE), the elections commissioners have sued the comptroller in Dutchess County Supreme Court. The commissioners are seeking to have the subpoenas quashed by a judge. The controversy began when Aymar-Blair notified the Board of Elections of an audit, but Elections Commissioners Republican Erik Haight and Democrat Lisa Jessup argued the comptroller lacked the authority to conduct it.
After three months of failing to provide the information, the comptroller issued the subpoenas in July, maintaining that the county administrative code allows such action if the information is not forthcoming. The Comptroller’s audit plan of the BOE covers the period of January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025. According to Aymar-Blair, the audit intends to include an evaluation of the BOE’s compliance related to payroll for election workers. The BOE claims the evaluation is beyond the Comptroller’s authority.
Haight and Jessup hired the law firm of Abrams Fensterman LLP of White Plains to bring the suit against Aymar-Blair.
“The Comptroller has no authority to review its (BOE) operations, including its election worker payroll processes and payroll recordkeeping practices,” are “beyond his purview to review,” the lawsuit says, while seeking to quash the subpoenas and restraining the Comptroller from “auditing, investigating, or otherwise examining the policies, procedures, and operations of the BOE.”
Dutchess County Supreme Court Justice Tom Davis is currently assigned to the case.
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