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Nix for Mayor lives
If you signed a Demetreus Nix petition and you are a newly registered Democrat, and you never learned to sign in cursive, your voice does not matter to the Niagara County Board of Elections.
The matter of Commissioner Jennifer Sandonato telling Nix and Uniquia Lewis it was OK to have newly registered or traditionally unengaged voters sign petitions may never be adjudicated.
More than 263 signatures were deemed unacceptable out of 779 collected leaving him 16 short.
Nix was in Niagara County Court Friday, represented by attorney Jim Ostrowski.
The parties are due back in Court Tuesday. Ostrowski said Friday night the goal is to present Judge Edward Pace with 16 notarized affidavits validating qualified voter signatures invalidated by the Democrats in their effort to perpetuate the reign of Mayor Robert Restaino.
Ostrowski was not interested in predicting the future but expressed cautious optimism.
“I have been telling them for years they should change it but they never do,” he said of the nonsensical part of the law pertaining to script, not printing, being required for signatures.
(Sarcasm begins) Cursive writing is only being taught to the best and brightest students from the best families, the ones we hope will vote to preserve the status quo. We need to keep those filthy animals in their ghetto. (Sarcasm ends).
Nix is not likely to win. He is likely to make change. I am betting the more than 700 signatures he, Uniquia and their volunteers gathered were from people who don’t sign petitions and don’t vote. Until now. How will the machine deal with it? What if they stay active and engaged and grow?
Further Analysis: Mayor Restaino has a few problems:
- He has disregarded and disrespected a large portion of our African American community.
- He has disregarded and disrespected anyone who hasn’t been here for 40 years. Opinions like mine or other recent arrivals are scorned,
- He won the last primary election in the 4th District by a 2-1 margin in a narrow race. Take that away and Cholookian wins.
I stand for the betterment of all of Niagara Falls. As Dontae says, nothing about us without us. If this story does not make the Gazette, it may be related to Restaino paying for ads.
