The chairwoman of the Chautauqua County Democratic Committee is going on record criticizing the county sheriff, district attorney and others for the arrest of a county legislator for violating election law.

Those who were involved with the arrest say their actions were in no way political and were completely justified.

In July, 56-year-old Marcus Buchanan 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.

In late September, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt, who is a Republican, announced that he was suspending the charges through an Adjournment of Contemplation of Dismissal. The charges will go away in six months provided Buchanan does not violate any misdemeanor or felony laws including criminal Election Law statutes within that timeframe.

But Schmidt’s actions have not prevented Marcia Westling Johnson from speaking out against the incident.

“This investigation, conducted by the Republican-led Sheriff’s Office, began in the spring of 2025 — despite the fact that the alleged events occurred during the 2023 election. During that election, standard procedures were followed: every registration and absentee ballot form was reviewed by both Democratic and Republican officials at the Board of Elections. If there were any irregularities, they were to be flagged jointly. No complaints were made at the time, and the process concluded as expected,” the county Democratic Chairwoman wrote in an email to the OBSERVER and Post-Journal.

She continued, “Nearly two years later, sheriff’s deputies went door to door to over 100 voters, asking whether they had signed the forms in question. Several voters reported feeling intimidated by these visits. Mr. Buchanan was later informed that he would be arrested and charged with a felony. The timing and handling of this situation raise serious concerns.”

Johnson said it appears that former Assemblyman Andy Goodell was behind the investigation. “That alone raises red flags. Think about that, a Republican former elected official contacted a Republican sheriff, who then pursued a lengthy investigation against a Democratic candidate for conduct that had not drawn a single formal complaint? Why now? Why two years later? Why this candidate?

“Even more troubling is that this matter was not promptly dismissed. Republican District Attorney Jason Schmidt could have ended this case at the first hearing. Instead, the case dragged on through multiple court appearances with great expense to Mr. Buchanan. It concluded with an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal and a goobly-gook statement from DA Schmidt suggesting that no one understands the complexity of our election laws, including him and his office.”

Johnson questioned how much taxpayer money was spent on this investigation, how many deputies’ hours were used to knock on doors and “interrogate voters” and “what message does this send to residents who wish to participate in our elections?”

Johnson concluded her statement by saying, “The people of Chautauqua County deserve answers. The political motivations behind this prosecution must be acknowledged. Law enforcement should not be weaponized against our elected officials. We must demand transparency and accountability, not just from those accused, but from those who wield the power to accuse.”

GOODELL SPEAKS OUT ON TOPIC

Goodell did not deny that he questioned the number of absentee ballots cast in Buchanan’s win two years ago, but said that it was not political.

“It was reported to me that Mr. Buchanan had submitted applications for over 130 absentee ballots with each of those applications certifying under oath that the individual was going to be out of the county – outside the county – on Election Day. It is extremely unlikely that 130 people would all be absent from that election district on one day,” he said. “Many of those individuals had never previously registered and had not voted before and the applications for absentee ballots accompanied their registration application. It was readily apparent that there were serious issues involving those absentee ballots.”

When asked how Goodell was brought in he replied, “People tell me things all the time.”

But as a former elected official, Goodell said he was extremely suspicious of the situation.

“I believe that the honesty and integrity of our electoral system is very important and that when you see blatant irregularities, those irregularities should be reported to the proper authorities for investigation,” he said.

SHERIFF DEFENDS ACTIONS

Sheriff Jim Quattrone, who is a Republican, insists the investigation was not political in any way.

He starts by saying the irregularities in the absentee ballots were reported in December of 2023, not in the spring of 2025. “There were less than 20 voters interviewed – not interrogated – and they were interviewed at the suggestion of investigators and chief legal counsel of the New York State Board of Elections. Two investigators from the New York State Board of Elections came down to assist in the investigation and due to our investigators limited knowledge of the election law, they reviewed the absentee ballots and found discrepancies,” he said.

The investigation was done in a bi-partisan manner.

“The charges that were placed were done so after consultation and recommendation of the New York State Board of Elections investigators and chief counsel. The case and recommendations were also reviewed by the county District Attorney. In addition to the State Board of Elections assisting with the case we also had assistance and input from the County Board of Elections – both the Republican and Democratic commissioners,” he said.

Quattrone noted the investigation took so long due to reliance on the state Board of Elections coming down to Chautauqua County to review and assist on a few different occasions, as well as the amount of records to be reviewed, and the Sheriff’s investigators having additional caseloads.

“Despite what people see on television, thorough investigations take time in order to confirm or dispel what is reported. Regarding the timing of the charges being lodged – it is when the investigation was completed. The timing of the charges had nothing to do with the 2025 election and in fact would have no bearing on the election since he has no opponent,” he said.

Quattrone is correct in that Buchanan is one of 11 legislators out of 19 who are running unopposed.

Quattrone strongly rejects any allegation that his office is motivated by politics.

“The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office has never asked nor will we ever ask what political party a complainant, victim, or suspect belongs to. We also can’t decide to investigate a case or not to investigate a case based on political affiliations. As Sheriff I am sworn to represent and protect all people in Chautauqua County. We also can’t decline to investigate a case due to a fear that it will ‘look bad,'” he said.

Quattrone noted the Democratic Election Commissioner never requested his office to cease the investigation nor did she indicate that she felt there wasn’t any improprieties to investigate.

“It is too bad that Ms. Johnson has chosen to write her letter with a lack of accurate information. Her letter has resulted in a need to point out the facts of the improprieties of the 2023 election cycle. While some of the violations that occurred would no longer be considered violations of election law – there were law changes since 2023 – they were in fact violations in the 2023 election. The charges placed against Mr. Buchanan were and are still considered violations of New York State election law,” he said.

After District Attorney Jason Schmidt announced the conditional discharge, Quattrone and Buchanan met for lunch, where Quattrone explained to him why the investigation took place.

“I have known Mr. Buchanan for approximately five years and would consider him a friend and hard working legislator but that cannot excuse improper or illegal behavior during the election or any time,” Quattrone said. “The decisions I make are based on what I believe are right or wrong, not on getting a vote or pleasing any particular group. In this case I received a complaint and turned it over to our investigators to do their job and investigate. There was consultation with state officials. Never did we ask any of them their party affiliation nor do I even know what party affiliation the Sheriff’s Office investigators are. I would hope that is what Marcia would want, what Marcus would want and the county residents would want.”

SCHMIDT CONFIDENT IN DECISIONS

District Attorney Schmidt was also offended by Johnson’s allegation that his office did the investigation based on Buchanan’s political affiliation.

“Any narrative along those lines, is nothing more than pure fiction – baseless garbage belied by the documentary evidence and eyewitness statements developed during the course of the investigation” he said.

Schmidt also warns that the case isn’t technically closed.

“If Legislator Buchanan, or anyone for that matter, begrudgingly accepted an (Adjournment of Contemplation of Dismissal) offer to avoid what he truly believes is a baseless or frivolous criminal charge asserted in bad faith, then let’s undo that immediately. The law which allows me to offer an ACD was not designed to cover the unethical conduct of a biased prosecutor,” he said.

Schmidt also calls on Johnson to better equip candidates when running for office.

“I ask Chairwoman Johnson to consider that she and her party have some responsibility here for what happened – that rather than attack law enforcement for following the law and doing the job entrusted to us, including investigating allegations of wrongdoing brought to our attention which clearly have legitimate bases justifying our review, she and her party bear some of the blame for the Election Law violations that occurred here. Consider that these improprieties may have actually caused, because it certainly contributed to, the unseating of a long-standing legislator through the count of illegally-obtained votes which should have never been recognized. I do not know Legislator Buchanan personally, but giving him the benefit of doubt afforded under the law, it is likely that none of this would have occurred, including the expenditure of precious manpower, time and resources which we desperately need fully deployed and aimed squarely at violent criminals if we are to alter the current trajectory taking shape around us, had the party which Chairwoman Johnson leads properly educated, advised and guided its candidates for public office, or at least this particular candidate,” he said.

Schmidt concluded his comments by saying, “I find the approach taken by Chairwoman Johnson here, in response to what should have been an opportunity to promote unity and mutual respect between ourselves, disappointing, counterproductive and unappealingly similar to the petty bickering and name-calling happening nationally.”