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The latest court battle over how elections are run in New York brings to mind an observation from Winston Churchill: “Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

The current battle — over who has control on local elections boards to validate or negate an absentee ballot — is ultimately about the integrity of the bipartisan system that has long been entrusted to run elections as fairly as possible. We look the state’s highest court to make the right choice – that is, to reject an earlier appellate ruling and safeguard the admittedly imperfect system we have.

The question at the heart of the case isn’t complicated: What happens when elections officials can’t agree on whether a signature on absentee ballot documents is legitimate?

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Boards of elections engage in a bipartisan review of ballots to ensure that they are........

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