Tuesday, June 10, 2008

30th Council District Still Considered Undecided

It has been a week since election day in the 30th council district in Queens but there still is no declared winner. Despite a non-partisan affair, the Republican favored Anthony Como originally bested Democratic machine candidate Elizabeth Crowley. Both candidates had roughly 30 percent of the vote but there are still ballots to be had and on top of that, suspicions of voter fraud may be investigated by the Department of Justice.

From Queens Crap:

Just when you thought things couldn't get more corrupt in Queens County comes word from a source inside the Board of Elections that the US Department of Justice received a complaint regarding allegations of voter fraud during the CD30 special election. Questions have reportedly arisen as to the following:

- Postcards were not mailed to voters in the district of the election as per protocol. A vote was taken by BOE to not to inform the public via mail, allegedly in order to decrease turnout of the majority party. (Dems outnumber Reps in the district 2 to 1 - see chart)
- A total of 4,383 district voters pulled the lever for a Republican, when you add Ognibene and Como's numbers together

- Vote counts are overinflated and do not reflect actual turnout witnessed and documented by poll workers.
- Crowley won Glendale, Ognibene won Middle Village but Como won Maspeth, where he is even less known than he is in the rest of the district.
- PS113 in Glendale strangely reported triple the turnout of the other 28 polling sites.
- Allegations of individual voters casting ballots at multiple polling sites or casting multiple ballots at the same site at different times throughout the day. (This occurred as campaign volunteers mysteriously vanished from their posts during the afternoon hours.)
- The shipping of state workers down from Albany to work the election.
- Paid state employees campaigning for a candidate during working hours.
- Unusually large numbers of absentee ballots being received by BOE.

Hmm, the Council District is wrapped by State Senate District 15 and held by Republican Serphin Maltese. Perhaps that whole Albany to NYC thing had something to do with hi....nah, a State Senator wouldn't have anything to do with that, knowing how clean Albany is and especially the Senate with Joe Bruno running it. And our state's reputation for ethics and accountability is top notch.

We'll have to wait and see what the Department of Justice comes up with, you know, that Department of Justice. Of course, since this has nothing to do with George Bush, they might actually be allowed to do their jobs.