The second day of testimony continued in the trial of three Rensselaer County officials charged in an alleged ballot fraud case.

Richard Crist, James Gordon and Leslie Wallace are accused of obtaining absentee ballots on behalf of other people and using them to vote over and over during a conspiracy to rig elections in 2021. This also allegedly involved changing registration of county employees to make them eligible to cast votes in parties.

All three were in prominent county positions at that time: Crist as director of operations, Gordon as director of the Bureau of Central Services, and Wallace handling constituent services.

The scheme involved the Working Families Party primary in 2021 and the November general election, prosecutors said.

Democratic Elections Commissioner Mary Sweeney testified Wednesday that she observed former Rensselaer County GOP Elections Commissioner Larry Bugbee coming through the back entrance of the office carrying a large bag of what appeared to be completed absentee ballots for the June 2021 primary.

“It was an amount that would make me like ‘Hmm, that’s a lot of ballots,’” Sweeney said.

She added said Bugbee made a comment of something to the effect of “look what I have” or “look what I’m doing.”

Prosecutors allege the defendants were trying to get a favored candidate to win the Working Families Party ballot line in a primary, to increase the chances that Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, a Republican, would be reelected. The Democratic candidate was also seeking that minor party line.

On cross-examination, Crist’s defense attorney, Lauren Owens, said that during the primary election, numerous people were requesting absentee ballots on behalf of others.

This was during the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements for voting absentee were loosened. The ballot must be signed by the voter.

“Isn’t it true that the voter doesn’t physically need to fill out the rest of the form?” Owens asked.

“Correct,” Sweeney replied.

Election law also changed and increased the standards for third parties to get on the ballot. Some parties were tossed off the ballot, including Green, Independence, Women’s Equality Party and Reform, according to Sweeney.

Owens asked if the major parties were trying to get those people who were now ‘party-less” in other parties. Sweeney said that was a fair assessment.

On his cross-examination, Gordon’s defense attorney, Paul DerOhannesian, also continued the same line of questioning, including asking Sweeney and receiving confirmation that there is no limit on the number of absentee ballots people could request on behalf of someone, or how many can be dropped off by somebody. Thorough records are not kept.

“When anybody delivers an absentee ballot, is there any record kept of who delivered that ballot?” DerOhannesian asked.

“I don’t know,” Sweeney said in reply.

DerOhannsesian also pointed out that this was going on during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the rules changes put a lot of stress on local county boards of election. 

All three defendants face a charge of conspiracy to violate constitutional rights. Gordon also faces a count of witness tampering. Wallace is also accused of making a false statement.

Testimony continued in the afternoon with former Rensselaer County GOP Elections Commissioner Jason Schofield.

Schofield admitted to jurors that he signed a cooperation agreement with the U.S. Attorney in hopes for a more lenient sentence. He testified that he met on several occasions with Crist and Gordon, so they could come up with a strategy to enter their own candidates into races to establish additional party line endorsements for their Republican candidates. The goal was to put the Democratic candidates at a disadvantage.

Schofield continued that because of the new state mandate that expanded absentee ballot voting, it made it a lot easier for applications to be filled out by people other than the voter named on the form. People could get their hands on multiple blank ballots and then fill them in using the names obtained after getting a voter’s signature.

Schofield has been in the news for having been hired as a clerk in the codes department for the city of Rensselaer. The City Council, with a Democratic majority, voted to cut his annual salary to $100 because of concern about his hiring.

Testimony will continue on Thursday.