Lee ready for challenges

A crazy thing happened over the last week. Michia Lee gathered 836 signatures to try and force her way into the Niagara Falls City Council Democratic primary.

Now comes the fun part. Lee’s petitions will be challenged because that’s what the establishment does.

They also will likely challenge Donta Myles petitions. It’s a nasty game.

Lee appears more equipped because of Demetreus Nix. In anticipation of the challenges, with Nix on her side, Lee posted to Facebook revealing she had collected affidavits in addition to signatures.

When Nix ran for Mayor last year, the Democrats challenged his petitions. Ultimately, he prevailed but not without a fight.

One of the arcane things in New York is fussy election law.

What almost undid Nix was signatures being disallowed because signers printed rather than writing in cursive.

Ultimately, in court, the judge gave Nix and his attorney 3 days to submit notarized affidavits validating the signatures.

If Lee did that process up front, with a notary public present, it is one step against her getting bounced.

An interesting element is Lee taking to social media on Saturday about the challenges and commenters saying there are fraudulent signatures on endorsed candidate petitions, including some who are willing to testify they only signed Lee's petitions and another who somehow signed while incarecerated. It smells like fraud. The same thread include comments from people saying they have been called by County Democratic Chairperson Chris Borgatti who is interrogating them about whether they really signed.