Opinion
November 19, 1997
(Appeal from Order of Supreme Court, Onondaga County, Hurlbutt, J. — Election Law.)
Present — Pine, J. P., Lawton, Hayes, Wisner and Boehm, JJ.
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 N.Y.2d 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 A.D.2d 960; Matter of Pauly v. Mahoney, 49 A.D.2d 1014, lv denied 37 N.Y.2d 711, appeal dismissed 37 N.Y.2d 887).