×

Wilmington supervisor challenger gets by challenge

After omissions, Saunderson’s petition is OK by 2 signatures

Xiao Yan Saunderson narrowly survived a petition challenge to get onto the ballot Nov. 5, challenging Wilmington town Supervisor Randy Preston.

The Essex County Board of Elections on Friday found that 11 of the objections Preston made on opposing Saunderson’s 40 signatures were valid, but that she still has enough to run for the supervisor seat.

In Wilmington, 27 valid signatures need to be collected to run, and Saunderson has 29.

She is an independent candidate on the For the Town party line. Preston, who has served as supervisor since 2007, is running for another two-year term on the independent People’s Party line.

The Board of Elections said some signers were not registered to vote, some signatures did not match the county’s files, some alterations were not initialed, and one person used a mailing address instead of a physical address.

The two deputy commissioners reviewed the objections and released their findings Friday morning.

Saunderson is a homemaker who has lived in Wilmington for the last 15 years. Before that, she was a painter in China. She’s married to David Saunderson, a retired police captain, former Wilmington town assessor and former Handlebar restaurant owner in Lake Placid.

Asked why she’s running for office, she said she’d like to do something different, is exercising her right to run and believes “the important thing is taxes for the people of the town.”

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.75/week.

Subscribe Today