In an unusual twist, New York City’s Election Board has called for a legal probe into suspected occurrences of ballot tampering in a critical City Council election taking place in the southern part of Brooklyn. This specific election is a Republican primary in the same region. At present, Justin Brannan, a Democrat, oversees this seat, however, his term limits have been reached.
On the previous Friday, the NYC Election Board officially requested that prosecutors explore potential circumstances of ballot tampering, and even votes purportedly cast by deceased individuals within this contentious City Council competition. The main uproar stems from the discovery of potential irregularities during the second phase of manual vote recounts conducted on the same day.
As things stand, George Sarantopoulos, an entrepreneur, has a slight lead over Richie Barsamian, who currently chairs the Brooklyn Republican Party. Sarantopoulos currently leads by a slim margin of just 16 votes in District 47’s G.O.P. primary race.
What has raised alarm bells for those in charge of the elections, was the later detection of 22 paper ballots that, according to officials, were missed by the voting machines on the night of the election. Among these allegedly fraudulent votes are two cast by individuals who, as per records, would now have been 107 and 101 years old.
Ultimately, the board decided to dismiss these suspicious 22 votes. However, an election law revision made in New York state in 2021 played a crucial role. It dictated that the absentee ballots cast in the name of the deceased and the man who didn’t vote were to be included in the count, as it was impossible to delineate which candidates these votes were cast in favor of.
The introduction of this dilemma arises from the fact that when the ballots are tallied, they are removed from the envelopes bearing the names of the absentee voters. Due to this protocol, it becomes practically impossible to associate the ballots with their respective voters.
The Board of Elections in the city, after conducting a comprehensive internal investigation into these potential irregularities, made the formal decision to entrust this complex situation to the office of Eric Gonzalez, the district attorney for Brooklyn. The said office has thus far withheld comments on the situation.
The Election Board put out a statement wherein they acknowledged the gravity of such attempts to undermine the election process. They however, also highlighted that the case demonstrates the effectiveness of the current protections in place. According to them, the suspected anomalies were caught early, subjected to a thorough investigation, and resolved swiftly.
The post NYC Election Board Requests Legal Probe into Ballot Tampering appeared first on Real News Now.
About Author
