The 66-year-old makes a living selling hats, handmade bead strings and other knickknacks outside the Broadway Junction train hub. John Booker is one of the two Brooklyn residents who swears his signature was forged on ballot objection forms. Ryan, executive director of the city’s BOE, did not respond to requests for comment. Any allegations of fraudulent activity should be investigated through the proper legal channels.” A call transferred via Genovesi’s office directory was disconnected after a reporter for THE CITY identified himself to the man who answered.Īdams’ chief of staff, Frank Carone, is also a former partner at Abrams Fensterman and the former law chair of the Brooklyn Dems.īob Liff, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Democratic Party, said in a statement on Friday after this story’s publication: “Claims that the Party knowingly filed a false instrument are fallacious, and frankly libelous. Genovesi Jr., who is also a partner at Abrams Fensterman, a law firm with close ties to Mayor Eric Adams and the Brooklyn Democratic Party, did not respond to an email seeking comment. The ballot challenges in question all listed Anthony Genovesi Jr., an attorney who serves as law chair for the Brooklyn Democrats, as a “contact person.” “Here they’ve committed actual fraud on multiple ones,” said Najmi, an election lawyer.
The organization’s attorney, Ali Najmi, said the alleged fraud constitutes a crime and calls into question the validity of all the challenges submitted by the Brooklyn Democratic Party - which he asked the Board of Elections to toss. The flagged challenges were among dozens linked to the Brooklyn Democratic Party targeting the ballot petitions of nearly 200 candidates who are seeking party positions.īoth opponents and allies of the party leadership described the wave of objections to candidates, mostly for low-level party posts, as part of an effort to consolidate power under county party chair Rodneyse Bichotte, who is also a state Assembly member.
Members and sponsors make THE CITY possible. “It’s really, really unfortunate and disappointing.” And to have to go to a criminal end to block us is just shocking,” said Maggie Moore, campaign director for Rep Your Block. “We just want to be a part of our own political party.
They point to a similarity in the handwriting among the signatures, obvious discrepancies between the submitted signatures and voter signatures already on file at the Board of Election, and even misspellings of some of the names. Rep Your Block, which aims to get more residents to participate in the borough’s Democratic party, also communicated to THE CITY concerns about the validity of at least a half dozen other signatures submitted on formal objections to candidates’ ballot petitions filed with the board. “These objections and any resulting specifications should be dismissed by your agency.” The “filing of these objections with your agency amounts to the criminal act of filing a false instrument,” the complaint to the BOE states. On Thursday, Rep Your Block, a volunteer organization, lodged a complaint with the board, citing sworn affidavits from two registered Democrats in Brownsville and East New York who said the signatures on ballot challenges to candidates filed in their names weren’t theirs.
The Brooklyn Democratic Party submitted paperwork with at least two forged signatures to the city Board of Elections as part of a bid to knock fellow Democrats off June primary ballots, a grassroots political organization alleges.
0 kommentar(er)
