Opinion
August 22, 2001.
Appeal from Order of Supreme Court, Erie County, Whelan, J.-Election Law.
Present Pigott, Jr., P.J., Green, Pine, Wisner and Lawton, JJ.
Order unanimously affirmed without costs. Memorandum: Supreme Court properly dismissed this special proceeding brought pursuant to Election Law § 16-102 without conducting an evidentiary hearing. Petitioner commenced the proceeding seeking to invalidate the designating petitions of Ronald H. Fleming (respondent), a candidate in the Democratic Party for the office of City Council member of the City of Buffalo, Fillmore District, on the ground that they were the product of fraud. Petitioner, respondent's opponent in the upcoming Democratic primary, contends that 15 signatures in respondent's designating petitions were invalid because those 15 individuals did not sign the petitions in respondent's presence, and petitioner attached affidavits from those persons in support of that contention. Petitioner's challenges to the signatures represent less than 1% of all signatures obtained by respondent, and thus petitioner railed to meet his burden of proving that respondent's designating petitions were thereby permeated with fraud ( see, Matter of Rodriguez v. Harris, 51 N.Y.2d 737; cf., Matter of Proskin v. May, 40 N.Y.2d 829; see generally, Matter of Aronson v. Power, 22 N.Y.2d 759, 760).