Barry Lites' petitions for Huntington Town Board race thrown out

Democrat Barry Lites, who was looking to run in a primary for Huntington town board against the party’s designated candidates, has been thrown off the ballot for failing to collect enough qualified signatures on his nominating petitions.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard Horowitz ruled Lites had only 659 legitimate signatures, when he needed 750. In several days of hearings, Horowitz knocked out 476 of the 1,125 signatures that Lites collected in his bid for the nomination.

Lites, of Lloyd Harbor, sought to run in the primary against Democratic Town Board member Joan Cergol of Huntington and the other party nominee, Kathleen Cleary of Northport, who ran unsuccessfully last year against State Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), the Senate minority leader.