Washington - Last year rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, sued the city after it scheduled a special election for April 3 — the final day of Passover.
The lawsuit was settled, with Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) agreeing to submit legislation to the D.C. Council giving the Board of Elections and Ethics discretion to schedule a special election to avoid these sorts of conflicts.
During a hearing in Herzfeld’s case, a board lawyer argued that the city had no discretion whatsoever in scheduling a special election under the law — noting that even if an election were to be scheduled on Christmas, there would be nothing the board could do about it. The city charter demands a special election be scheduled for the first Tuesday that is 114 days after a vacancy is declared. The only exception is if a previously scheduled general election is within a 60-day window before or after the special election date.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan encouraged the city to come to an accommodation for observant voters of all faiths. Under the legislation that Gray agreed to introduce, the board would have discretion to schedule special elections within a window from 100 days to 130 days after a vacancy is declared — not just to avoid religious holidays, but to “provide the largest opportunity for voter participation . . . based on a totality of the circumstances, taking into account, inter alia, cultural and religious holidays.”
Steven Lieberman, Herzfeld’s attorney, praised the settlement and said Gray “showed a lot of wisdom” in agreeing to make changes. “We won’t have elections in the future scheduled on religious or cultural holidays,” he said. “It was a very wise move for the mayor to do this.”
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