Marcus Buchanan

Election charges against a sitting elected county official are being suspended and will likely be dropped.

In July, Marcus Buchanan, who was 56, was charged with illegal voting for allegedly violating the State Election Law pertaining to the use of absentee ballots during the 2023 election cycle.

A Dunkirk resident, Buchanan was accused of going around the city, registering voters and at the same time getting them to apply for an absentee ballot.

Buchanan is the Chautauqua County Legislator for District 1 which encompasses part of the city and the west town of Dunkirk.

In 2023, Buchanan, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican Kevin Muldowney. The race went down to absentee ballots.

He is running unopposed for re-election.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt, who is a Republican, announced on Monday that he has taken steps to conclude the case “with a certain disposition available under the law providing for a suspension of all prosecution activities and an adjournment of the case for a period of six months after which the charges will be dismissed and associated court record sealed, provided that Mr. Buchanan does not allegedly violate any misdemeanor or felony laws including criminal Election Law statutes within that timeframe.”

Schmidt noted the charges were made after a lengthy period of investigation “which in part required a comprehensive review and understanding of comparatively complex and unfamiliar Election Law prescriptions, including relatively new state-wide Election Law procedures authorizing mail-in and/or early voting options, and the recent implementation of these newly-available options by voters and lay person candidates who are not necessarily sufficiently knowledgeable in the precise parameters of their permitted conduct when they engage in campaign and/or voter-related activities.”

Schmidt said there were several factors which led him to the determination of suspension of the charges against Buchanan, including:

– The comparative complexity of, and public unfamiliarity with, Election Law descriptions.

– Recognition that lay person candidates and voters acting under newly enacted laws may unknowingly engage in conduct which violates Election Law prohibitions and therefore do so, in whole or in part, without actually intending to act unlawfully.

– Buchanan’s lack of any criminal history.

– The “potentially catastrophic financial and personal consequence” a criminal conviction may have upon him and his ability to be gainfully employed and take care of his loved ones.

– The length of time in which this matter was under investigation and how we are “squarely in the middle of the 2025 political campaign cycle” for all 19 legislative districts, including Buchanan’s.

– The county’s interests in pursuing these charges “given what I think is a reasonable likelihood that parts of our community which we serve may believe, regardless of their actual knowledge of the case, that political, racial and/or socioeconomic considerations contributed to the imposition and prosecution of these charges.”

Schmidt noted the last concern is especially important to him “given the increasingly divisive nature of the current political and social discontent surrounding us.”

He continued, “In the approximate 20-year period in which I have worked within our local criminal justice system as both prosecutor and defense attorney, law enforcement has always acted with the highest integrity and without regard to those irrelevant considerations; it would be a disservice to our community if I were to pursue a course of action which created or contributed to that erroneous narrative.”

Schmidt said he hopes what occurred with Buchanan “may serve as an opportunity for all of us to better understand our rights and responsibilities when we participate in our democratic process. As our local candidates for elected office now ramp up their campaign efforts in their final sprint to November’s election, all of us who participate in the election process, whether as voters or candidates, have a duty to educate ourselves on the recent changes to the Election Law which have expanded our voting opportunities so that we each do our part to ensure that votes are properly cast and recognized. Only in this way can we continue to maintain the integrity of our election system.”