Primary absentee ballots at issue in Nassau

Thirty-eight absentee ballots for three contested legislative and judicial primaries in Nassau County were belatedly mailed to military voters Tuesday, county officials said.

But with Primary Day less than three weeks away, the Democratic and Republican elections commissioners are at an impasse over which names should appear on the ballot in four other legislative districts.

The commissioners agreed to send military ballots in four races not in dispute by the two parties. They include 23 ballots on the Independence line for the 2nd District Court in Hempstead; 14 ballots on the Democratic line for the 13th Legislative District; and one ballot on the Conservative line for the 13th Legislative District.

A primary will also be held on the Conservative line in the 4th Legislative District, but no absentee military ballots were requested, said Democratic Commissioner William Biamonte.

It remains unclear, however, whether more than 70 other military voters will receive ballots for the GOP and Conservative party lines in the 5th, 16th, 18th and 19th legislative districts.

Biamonte contends the four races should have competitive primaries. But John Ryan, an attorney representing Republican elections commissioner Louis Savinetti, said only one candidate is involved in each race and there are no more contested primary ballots to send to military voters.

"At this point, we're done," Ryan said.

Savinetti plans to file suit against Biamonte in the coming days to prevent him from sending out contested primary ballots in the four races.

The dispute stems from an ongoing battle over efforts to redraw 19 legislative districts. The Republican-controlled Legislature voted in May for a new map that would force four Democratic lawmakers into two districts. Democrats, claiming the move violated the county charter, filed suit to prevent the new lines from going into effect before 2013.

After an appeals court ruled in favor of the GOP, the case has moved to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.

Expecting a fight over the legislative lines, the Republican and Conservative parties selected one set of candidates to appear on the ballot in November if the new map was adopted and another if the old boundaries were kept in place.

Depending on the outcome of the Court of Appeals case, GOP officials insist that one candidate will drop out of the race in each of the four disputed districts. But Democrats claim the deadline for candidates to remove themselves from the ballot has passed.