Election disarray in Old Field, thanks to confusion over petition deadline

Blame it on the leprechauns.

A St. Patrick's Day-related quirk in state election law, and how it was interpreted in Old Field, has thrown Wednesday's village elections there into disarray. 

A village justice resigned and the mayor briefly dropped his reelection campaign last month after officials couldn't agree on a deadline for candidates to file petitions to get on the ballot.

As a result, residents of the tiny village in northern Brookhaven Town will find four open seats on the ballot but only one candidate: incumbent trustee Robert Chase.

Residents will cast ballots Wednesday for mayor, two trustees and village justice.

Old Field officials said the deadline dispute arose because of a quirk in the state's village election law. Village elections normally are held on the third Tuesday of March. But state law allows villages to push elections back a day when St. Patrick's Day falls on a Tuesday, as it did this year.

By state law, petitions must be filed 35 days before the election. But Old Field officials said an online election guide published by the New York Conference of Mayors listed the petition deadline as Feb. 10 — 36 days before election day this year.

The Albany-based conference lobbies on behalf of villages and offers training for village staff. Its executive director, Barbara J. Van Epps, said in an email Monday that conference staff "are not aware of any incorrect information in our calendar of dates."

Village Justice Mitchell Birzon, 71, said he resigned his post after he was told his petitions would not be accepted because they were submitted on Feb. 11. 

“I was very happy serving pro bono," Birzon, a justice for about five years, said Monday in a phone interview. "But I wasn’t happy when I was told that we got the wrong date.” 

He is not running an active write-in campaign — there are no official candidates for village justice — but he said he would serve if elected.

At least two people, Mayor Tom Gulbransen and trustee Rebecca Van Der Bogart, are running write-in campaigns for mayor, and former trustee William Schaefer also is a write-in candidate to rejoin the village council.

Gulbransen, 66, said the petition flap left him so frustrated that he initially declined to seek reelection. He said he changed his mind because overall, serving as mayor "has been worthwhile.”

Residents “can write in whomever they want to write in. I just wanted there to be a choice,” he said Monday.

Van Der Bogart, 59, said Tuesday she had not planned to run for mayor and did not file petitions. She launched her write-in campaign after the filing deadline, because it appeared no one would run for mayor.

“It resulted in a big village mess,” she said of the dispute.

Chase, who was appointed to replace Schaefer last year and is seeking his first full term, said he filed his petitions by Feb. 10 after seeing that deadline on the conference of mayors website. He said he was surprised other officials didn't file by the same date. 

“It’s unfortunate because, as a result of that, there’s no one on the ballot except myself,” Chase, 63, a retired Suffolk County detective, said Monday in a phone interview. “I don’t understand all the confusion because I’m the person with the least amount of experience with this.”

It wasn't clear as of press time whether other write-in candidates were running for village offices. All seats are unpaid and carry two-year terms.

Voting is from noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Old Field Village Hall, 207 Old Field Rd.

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.