Felony violations of Election Law

June 10, 2009  In the 2005 race for Town Supervisor, cards were handed out to voters at one New Square polling place. The cards were given out by the county workers who were at the sign-in tables to those who came to vote. A Preserve Ramapo poll watcher was told that the cards (copy below) were supposed to be given to the children of the voters. The children then could take the cards to their school the next day, hand them in to the rabbi, and be given a gift of candy. A copy was picked up by the poll watcher, and we had it translated by three different people in order to verify that these were gift cards.

The card reads:
(Words in the box on the right side of the card) "Gift Privilege Card"
Next line: "For Election Day Tuesday" and it gives the Hebrew date of election day.
Third line: "Thank you very much and our expression of gratitude for coming to vote for the general good of the community."
Bottom two lines in black box: "With this card, your child will be eligible for a gift, tomorrow, Wednesday, in the school where he/she learns."

On September 19, 2006, Preserve Ramapo filed a formal complaint with the Rockland County Board of Elections and with the State Board. The statute of limitations for filing the complaint was two years, and the complaint included other potential violations.

It took quite a while for the State to process the complaint, but a New York State BOE lawyer, Elizabeth C. Hogan, returned the following determination on April 7, 2009:

In the Matter of the Complaint Against New Square Poll Workers DETERMINATION1 CMP06-72

 

NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS

2009 OPINION #1

April 7, 2009

QUESTION PRESENTED:

Is the distribution of cards that are designated thereon as "Gift Privilege Card" and say that in appreciation for voting, the voter's child is eligible for a gift (unspecified in nature) redeemable the next day at a particular location conduct prohibited by the Election Law?

DISCUSSION:

Section 17-142 of the Election Law provides, in pertinent part, that

"Except as allowed by law, any person who directly or indirectly, by himself or through any other person, pays, lends or contributes, or offers to (do so)...any money or other valuable consideration to or for any voter, or to or for any other person, to induce such voter to vote or refrain from voting at any election...or for having come to the polls... is guilty of a felony."

　

The Board is of the opinion that the promise to or making of a gift as described is conduct that is prohibited by the Election Law.

At this point, we checked back with the Board asking about the statute of limitations on the felony offense and were told that it was five years. We had until 2011 to hand the matter over to local law enforcement for investigation and possible prosecution.

Meeting at District Attorney's Office
Last Wednesday, June 3, a Preserve Ramapo representative met with Detective J. David Mulkeen to present the state determination and to request a full investigation of this violation and also of the offer of free ice-cream makers to voters in Monsey in the following Primary Election in Sept. 2006. That initiative was halted by the Sheriff’s Department, which sent out officials to confiscate the sign-up sheets and voting recommendation forms. Also part of the evidence collected by the Sheriff’s Dept. was the advertisement in the Monsey publication called Community Connections.We believed the ice-cream maker offer violated the State Election Law Section 17-142 in exactly the same way the candy gift cards do.

The following copies of evidence attained from the Sheriff's Department were given to the Detective conducting the interview.

The first image is the actual ad from Community Connections, and the second image is a detail from the signup sheet. We have not shown the entire sheet because it has names and addresses of residents who had signed up to receive the machines.

In the Journal News coverage of the probe, the reporter includes another complaint brought at the time:

"On the day of the Sept. 12, 2005, primary, the Rockland Sheriff's Department went to the Northern Metropolitan Nursing Home in Monsey to stop people from distributing sign-up sheets for the ice-cream machines outside of the building."

"A month earlier, an accusation was made to the Board of Elections that Yitzchok Ullman, administrator of the New Monsey Park Home for Adults, had told residents that they would lose television privileges if they didn't vote for the Democratic candidates."

(Full text of the Journal Story can be read here.)

Yitzchok Ullman was named to the Ramapo Town Board by Supervisor St. Lawrence when Ytamar Yeager left the position, and he, Ullman, is running this fall to take the position full time.

The Journal reporter was told that the Rockland District Attorney's Office was investigating the charges. DA Thomas Zugibe said, "We just recently received a referral from the state Board of Elections and we will certainly look into the underlying facts, the allegations that were made."

We hope the office looks into both the New Square and Monsey violations and that stricter oversight be put in place so these kinds of abuses are not repeated. Also, since these are not misdemeanors but felonies, we expect the remedies taken by the DA's office will be appropriate for those kind of offenses.

We will check back with the office in a few weeks and post updates as we get them.

Michael Castelluccio