Erik Hiaght, the Republican Commissioner at the Board of Elections, is known amongst republican circles for many reasons, one being he that allegedy coerces elected officials to puchase insurance from his or run the risk of being blacklisted as well as having the reputation of being somewhat of a 'weasel.'

Now we can add whitewashing to that list with the latest scandal to arise out of the defunct Dutchess County Board of Elections...the tampering of absentee and write-in ballots that were in a supposedly 'secure' room.
Ballot Gate story

But according to Mr. Haight, the tampering with a sealed ballot bag isn't really that big of a deal as he stated, “Nothing is out of order. No materials are mising. No additional matterials have been added,” Haight said.

What this story didn't print was the circumstances in how the tampered bags were found. When the room containing the ballots was sealed, both commissioners handed off their keys to the Dutchess County Sheriff's Department. The next day the door was found ajar, which leads to the question of how and why it was opened. We have heard that Mr. Hiaght is blaming this on the cleaning crew, however the staff did not have access to the secure location, which leads the writers to deduce that it may be an inside job amongst republicans, Erik Haight included. We must bear in mind that many of the politically connected republicans have a bias towards Stephen Saland. Erik Haight even outwardly supports Stephen Saland according to his Facebook page when he 'attended Primary Day/Saland for Senate.'  Noted is that he doesn't 'like' Neil DiCarlo for Senate.

Whomever Mr. Haight holds a personal preference for, as a commissioner he is the one ultimately responsible for ensuring that proper procedures are carried out at the BOE, however, like many in the republican political machine in Dutchess county, he will most likely get yet another get out of jail free card. The conclusion is that he failed at his duty to ensure that the door to where the ballots were held was secure.