Late last year, Crown Point’s Bethany Kosmider filed a Freedom of Information Law request with Essex County. In her request, Kosmider asked to review a copy of the electronic ballot images and cast vote records for the general election held last November.

County officials have blocked Kosmider’s request in the months since.

Now this inquiry is being litigated unnecessarily, expending county resources on a FOIL request that is supported by the law and also reflects good public policy.

In June, I submitted a petition on Kosmider’s behalf to the Essex County Supreme Court, seeking to compel the county to release the ballot images and cast vote records. Included in that petition is a sworn affidavit from Douglas Kellner, co-chair of the New York State Board of Elections.

Kellner’s affidavit states, “The key principles of election administration in a democracy dictate that election officials conduct elections in a manner that is uniform, transparent, verifiable, and accurate. (T)he Freedom of Information Law states the unambiguous policy that barring special exceptions, all government records should be available for inspection.”

Kellner’s affidavit goes far beyond generalities. It addresses situations such as Kosmider’s: “To my knowledge, the overwhelming majority of county boards of elections that have received requests to examine or obtain copies of ballot images have approved those requests,” the Board of Elections co-chair said. “The New York City Board of Elections has routinely granted requests to examine ballot images and cast vote records. As far as I know, the Essex County Board of Elections is the only county that has denied a FOIL request for copies of electronic ballot images and cast vote records” since 2014, when New York State’s Committee on Open Government issued an advisory opinion recommending that requests such as Kosmider’s be approved. The Committee on Open Government is charged with overseeing the state’s Freedom of Information laws.

“For these reasons, I urge the Court to grant petitioner Bethany Kosmider’s request,” Kellner concluded.

Nonetheless, Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Ferebee, acting on the advice of county attorney Dan Manning, continues to politely and graciously decline Kosmider’s request to see the votes.

In explaining this decision, Ferebee and Manning cite the same 2014 advisory opinion cited by Kellner as well as a 2014 state Supreme Court decision from Rensselaer County. This is remarkable because the advisory opinion advises releasing voting records and the court case resulted in a ruling that voting records must be made available.

Noting that FOIL is “based on a presumption of access,” the entire five-page advisory opinion (written by the executive director of the state Committee on Open Government) supports the idea that electronic ballot images and cast vote records are “accessible to the public pursuant to Election Law, and that nothing in the Election Law or FOIL serves to enable a county board of elections to deny access to those records.”

The state Supreme Court holding Ferebee cites also indicates that the county should release the ballots. Citing “a broad duty on government to make its records available to the public” and a “right to review ballots,” this case, Mantello v. Bugbee, grants a petitioner’s request to inspect and review paper ballots from a city council election.

Far from supporting the idea that Kosmider’s request should be denied, the documents cited by Manning and Ferebee provide support for the Crown Pointer’s petition.

New York’s FOIL statute says that the right “to review the documents and statistics leading to determinations is basic to our society. Access to such information should not be thwarted by shrouding it with the cloak of secrecy or confidentiality.”

We are all aware of the potential for both computer malfunctions and human error, and Kosmider therefore wants to examine the ballots from some county races where the results concern her. The engagement of citizens like Bethany Kosmider with the democratic process helps to keep our elections clean and fair.

The government has the right to audit us. Thanks to New York’s Freedom of Information laws, we also have the right to audit our government.

Owing to numerous conflicts of interest, county attorney Dan Manning has removed himself from this case as it heads to Martin Auffredou’s courtroom in Lake George. Now Essex County will have to hire an outside attorney to litigate this matter.

Wouldn’t it be better for county finances to simply follow the overwhelming majority of New York counties (as well as Robert Freeman’s 2014 advisory opinion) and release the documents?

Is this what the taxpayers of Essex County want to be spending their money on – arguing against precedent and the opinions of state officials, and fighting to prevent the release of election ballots?

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Bryan Liam Kennelly lives in Lake Placid.