35 CLERKS WRITE TO PRESIDENT

Otsego Clerk Asks

Trump: Turn Off

 ‘Green Light Law’

She Also Worries Illegal Immigrants

May Inadvertently Be Allowed To Vote

COOPERSTOWN – Otsego County Clerk Kathy Sinnott Gardner said yesterday she has joined 30 county clerks in sending a letter to President Trump, asking him to direct the U.S. Justice Department to go to court to block the state’s new “Green Light Law.”

In an interview, Saratoga County Clerk Chris Hayner said, as of yesterday, that number had risen to 35.  He said all were Republicans, except Oneida County Clerk Sandra DePerno, a Utica Democrat.

Sinnott Gardner said the New York State County Clerks Association is meeting July 8 in Syracuse, and she expects to have more to share about the issue after that briefing, particularly if the association will bring suit to block the law from going into effect on Dec. 14.

A call was put in yesterday to John Horstman, Trump’s point of contact in the region that includes Otsego County, to see if the president has seen the letters and if he plans action, but no response has yet been received.

Sinnott Garder said she agrees with the points Hayner’s letter makes, but she is also concerned that illegal aliens who register for a driver’s license will be automatically added to the voters rolls.

At few months ago, she said, the state Department of Motor Vehicles equipped her office with a computerized “customer facing device” that walks would-be drivers through the application process.  At one point the computer asks, are you registered to vote?  If the applicants checks the “no” box, his or her name goes directly to the county Board of Elections.

“They must have known this” – the “Green Light” – “was coming,” she said.

Hayner’s letter also said the new law prohibits county clerks from disclosing information to federal law-enforcement agencies.  Since county clerks swear allegiance to both the U.S. and state constitutions, “the law may bring those two oaths into conflict,” he wrote to the president.