Brownson v. Andrews

—Order unanimously affirmed without costs. Memorandum: Supreme Court properly denied the petition challenging three write-in ballots cast in favor of respondent Russell Andrews. Election Law § 8-308 (3) “mandates, in clear and unequivocal terms, that ‘[a] write-in ballot must be cast in its appropriate place on the machine, or it shall be void and not counted’ ” (Matter of Haynie v Mahoney, 48 NY2d 718 , 719). Although the challenged ballots were cast in column four as opposed to column three, the court permissibly found that under the circumstances the three write-in ballots were cast in the appropriate place on the machine (see, Matter of Daly v Jayne, 233 AD2d 960 ; Matter of Pauly v Mahoney, 49 AD2d 1014 , lv denied 37 NY2d 711 , appeal dismissed 37 NY2d 887 ). (Appeal from Order of Supreme Court, Onondaga County, Hurlbutt, J.—Election Law.) Present—Pine, J. P., Lawton, Hayes, Wisner and Boehm, JJ.