How LaStar Gorton Followed The Process And Was Still Denied The Ballot For Ward 1 In 2023
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When The Write-In Candidate happened for Beacon's 2023 Mayoral race, it exposed the question of why it can be so hard for some people to get onto the ballot. LaStar Gorton is one such Beaconite who was denied getting onto the ballot by Dutchess County Board of Elections, despite getting all of her homework in on time to run as an Independent. She was also questioned in an uncomfortable way, she says, by the Beacon Democrats Chair, Lisa Jessop, an hour after she submitted her paperwork to the Dutchess County Board of Elections.
LaStar was born and raised in Beacon, and currently lives in Tompkins Terrace with her children. Very important to her is being able to stay in Beacon to raise her children in Beacon. While her income is not nothing, it qualifies her to live in Tompkins Terrace, but makes it difficult to buy a home that fits her family. As Beacon considers the size of new apartments, single and double apartment units, and property in general, it clear in their planning of as many small units as possible it is not thinking of families who are growing out of their tiny apartments.
When Tompkins Terrace was going through the "temporary" re-housing of residents to renovate most of the apartments after the City of Beacon granted it a 40 year tax break to the luxury community managers of the low-income community in Beacon, LaStar joined residents there in being vocal at community meetings about the re-housing, to ensure that residents could return without qualification challenges by Tompkins Terrace management.
When another shooting happened at Tompkins Terrace in May of 2023, LaStar decided to turn it up a notch and run for City Council for Ward 1 as an Independent. She said that she missed the deadline to run as a Democrat, but could run as an Independent. After doing all of her work and hitting all of her deadlines, LaStar was denied by the Dutchess County Board of Elections. She was also questioned in what she felt was an uncomfortable approach by the Chair of the Beacon Democrats, Lisa Jessop, as to why she didn't come to the Beacon Democrats first to ask to be considered by them.
This situation is not the first that A Little Beacon Blog has heard of this happening. The details in this particular situation are the most simple to relay, however. ALBB tried reporting last election on when former Beacon City Councilmember Ali T. Muhammed, a Muslim Black man, was trying to run for Mayor in Newburgh against Torrence Harvey, a Black man. Ali acquired the signatures he needed, but was challenged.
Ali told ALBB: "Someone has to challenge your petitions, then Board of Elections rules on the signatures...This is a tactic to keep candidates off the ballot. If not voter suppression, it's lack of democracy. My signatures were challenged from the Democrat line. They started weaponizing that tactic/tool against me since 2016. I’ve won a couple court cases to reverse the ruling. I’ve been disqualified in a couple races because of the rulings, with no resources to fix."
LaStar's story is part of why Reuben Simmons threw his hat into the ring for Mayor in the final hours before election day. Before ALBB’s interview with LaStar, Reuben shared his light-bulb moment of when he started questioning the process of getting onto the ballot. Reuben’s reaction happened after Coucilperson Justice McCray proposed increasing the small salary the councilmembers currently get, in the name of increasing accessibility to people who want to serve, but may need more money. This is not a new proposal. Paying Beacon City Councilmembers is suggested every now and then within different administrations.
Said Reuben to ALBB: “When you want to serve, public service, it is a service, not to supplement your income, when you have workers who can't afford to live here...Maybe this increase in Council dollars will entice people to run. It just made me think, LaStar wanted to run for her ward. She seeked out the signatures and she went through the process. I witnessed her party actively work against her and become a barrier. So it made me question the hypocrisy of 'what is the raises really for?' Star is here and she can share the process she went through. When she initially was running...we share similar support groups so to speak. I was aware and kept my ear in to what was going on; just given my little education on it. If people who want to run can't even get on because a certain party has us in handcuffs so to speak, and has a lock on the election process, I'm not exactly sure the contradiction of these stories.”
As for the Republican party in Beacon, and why there were no contenders in Beacon, ALBB cannot speak to why there were no candidates put forward. The Republican party in Beacon was quite stained after Trump, making wins for Democrats easier. If a member of the Republican party wants to speak to ALBB about their issues, they can do so.
ALBB asked LaStar to tell us the entire process for her to do try to get onto the ballot. This is what she said, which you can also here in this interview, and has been transcribed in full below:
"I originally did not know what the entire process was. I live down in Tompkins Terrace, and a shooting had happened [in May 2023]. I went to our rehab meeting because they are about to redo the entire complex. I went to speak on it. Our Councilwoman Molly [Rhodes] was sitting in the back not really saying anything. All of my friends were like 'Instead of you just going to a City Council meeting and voicing your opinion, why don't you go run for this election.' I'm like 'Ok, cool!' I went onto the Board of Elections website, and found out I was too late to run as a Democrat, but I was still in time to run for the Independent. So I came up with a whole party name for myself; I wrote up my ballots; I sent them to the County as well as our city Board of Elections to ensure that my ballots were correct before I got them signed. My petitions: I got the signatures that I needed. I handed them in on the last day, the 30th of May. I went there, and I handed them in.
"About an hour after I handed in my petitions, I got a text or email from Lisa Jessup, the head of our Beacon Democrats here, saying that she would like to speak to me. We had a very long phone call. She asked me why I didn't run as a Democrat. I said at the time I did not know, and this issue just came up, and I was passionate about trying to save my part of the city, and make it batter for the people that live there.
"There were a couple of odd things said, like 'We could back you off the ballot if we wanted to...I'm not sure your petitions are all correct.' I said I know that every signature is not correct, but I have more than enough to be put on the ballot. But none the lease, in order to accept it, I received a letter in the mail on June 3, that said I needed to accept the position by June 2. But the letter was not mailed until June 1 [letter was postmarked June 1].
"But Lisa received this phone call on May 30 when my ballots were handed in stating that I handed in my ballots. I did call the County Board of Education and went there myself personally and spoke with the Dutchess County head there, and she told me that Lisa had FOILed for my petitions in order to see them.
"I said 'well how did she know to FOIL for them if I just handed them in? Who informed her that I handed in my petitions on the very last day at 12pm in the afternoon? Someone had to let her know that they were there in order to FOIL them. For her to get them so quickly, and be able to call me so quickly within the hour and to ask for a phone conversation. But you mail me out my letter on June 1 so that I don't received it until June 3, and I had to accept it by June 2.'
"I went there [to the Board of Elections] in person on June 5 to ask if there was any way I could accept it. She said 'well hold on, let me ask the Republican side. We have to be in agreeance in order for you to be able to accept.' She went away for 2 seconds, came back and said that they said no. So that was it.
"I did email the Enforcement Agency in Albany but I have not received an email back regarding it because I believe it was done on purpose and maliciously [it is November 5th as of this interview, and LaStar emailed the Enforcement Agency in May].
"Lisa and Molly both still reach out to me wanting to talk. They had a very long conversation asking me my ideas. Afterwards, I was like 'Oh, you dummy, you just gave them all of your ideas that they probably didn't know of the issues actually going on in Ward 1.'
"Molly actually knocked on my door Friday. Saying 'I just want to make sure you knew we are voting, since this is closed down. I still want to meet up with you and talk to discuss this whole Council process.'
LaStar's response: "I'll see you in 2 years. And I'll be starting from the top."
ALBB emailed Lisa Jessop on November 9th for comment on these events, and did not receive a response. On that same day, ALBB shared an election results article, “Beacon Election Results: The Significance Of The Unopposed Party, And A Few Other Races,” which pointed out that the Write-In Candidate for Mayor won 16% of the vote, when other Write-In results for other seats were 1%. A representative from the Beacon Democrats’ Instagram commented in that thread: “This post is misleading. Anyone can run for office, but NY state and Dutchess County have filing requirements. If you go to elections.dutchessny.gov, you’ll find all the requirements spelled out in great detail—gathering of signatures (which are sometimes challenged), financial statements, etc. It’s not like someone wakes up on Nov 6 and says, ‘I think I’ll tun for City Council, vote for me tomorrow’. Is it a perfect system? No. Could it be better? Yes. Anyone who wants to get involved with how elections are tun should contact the Board of Elections—they’re slways looking gor more help.”
The Beacon Democrats IG representative than posted a correction Comment: “Apologies for misspelled words in last paragraph—it posted before final edits. It should say: Anyone who wants to get involved with how elections are run should contact the board of elections – they’re always looking for more help.”
