KINGSTON – The chairman of the Ulster County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee, Democrat Jeff Collins of Woodstock, is calling for a formal ethics review by the County Ethics Commission and the State Board of Elections into an “apparent conflict of interest and potential misuse of election data” by Republic County Elections Commissioner John Quigley.
Collins said a digital platform, Build, appears to be a partisan civic engagement and development tool that he believes Quigley developed and is reaping financial gain.“As you may know, there is a state law against monetizing election data as an election commissioner, and this website basically looks like it is using election data and charging for it,” he said. “So, I am concerned that our Republican elections commissioner is monetizing his position.”
Collins is also concerned about the potential use of county board of elections data, namely voter signature files, in the Build platform.
He said if that is accurate, it could constitute a serious breach of public trust and misuse of sensitive election information.
Quigley did not respond to a request for comment concerning the issue of the Build platform and his participation, if any, in its development, operations and/or monetization.
“Public confidence in our elections depends on clear boundaries between public duty and private interest,” Collins said. “Those boundaries must be enforced.”