Monsey, NY - Adult Home Residents May Have Been Told Whom To Vote For
Monsey, NY - An official with a Monsey adult home may have threatened and coerced residents there to vote for certain candidates, county election officials said.
Board of Elections inspectors, sent to collect absentee ballots at the New Monsey Park Home for Adults, reported to the commissioners that residents there had been given a list of candidates and told if they didn't vote accordingly their television privileges would be revoked.
The inspectors reported that the lists were handed out by Yitzy Ullman, who is listed on the county's Web site as the home's administrator. Ullman called the charges "disgraceful and insulting" and said that while the facility distributed the list to all residents as a recommendation, no threats were ever made. "Residents routinely ask the office for advice," he said. "They're coming up and saying 'Who should we vote for?' " Ullman said.
Board of Elections Commissioners Ann Marie Kelly and Joan Silvestri said they have statements from all eight inspectors who visited the home and that they have been turned over to the county's district attorney and the state Board of Elections.
The candidates on the list, were Assembly candidate David Fried, County Legislature candidate Alden Wolfe and County Court judge candidates Charles Apotheker and Tom Walsh. All are Democrats.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 8/30/2006 09:27:00 AM
1 Comments:
At 9:31 AM,
Anonymous said…
Subverting the ballot?
There's little in a democracy that's as sacred as the right of eligible voters to cast ballots for candidates of their own choice.
And there's little as repugnant as an attempt to subvert that right, even if it were to be under the guise of helping adult-home residents make their decisions.
Until county and state boards of elections sort out the allegations of voter steering at a local adult home, we'll give the administrator of the New Monsey Park Home for Adults the benefit of a doubt that such help was all that was going on with residents' absentee ballots. According to some residents, though, it was more than that, and more than troubling.
When Board of Elections inspectors went to the home Friday to collect absentee ballots, they were told by residents that they had been threatened with loss of television privileges if they didn't adhere to a list of four candidates — all Democrats — that had been provided by the administrator, Yitzy Ullman.
Ullman said that the list represented recommendations, based on the candidates' record on health issues, mental-health and other concerns of the home's residents. He denied that there was any coercion or that anyone was threatened in any way. He called the accusations "disgraceful and insulting," and said he was just helping residents who asked, "Who should we vote for?''
What's disgraceful and insulting is anything smacking of voter-steering. When voters are people who can't get to the polls and have to depend on absentee ballots, it's all the more distressing. No one's right to vote should be comprised.
It's impossible to address this issue without speaking to a larger one — the long tradition of bloc voting in the Hasidic Jewish communities in Ramapo.
The world outside of Rockland paid the practice some mind when Hillary Clinton got 1,400 votes to opponent Rick Lazio's 12 votes there in the November 2000 U.S. Senate election. Clinton had visited New Square and met with village leaders that August. Then in December, after her victory, New Square Grand Rabbi David Twersky met with the Clintons at the White House. Later came the question of whether those 1,400 votes were used as leverage so President Bill Clinton would grant clemency to three New Square men and another from Brooklyn. They had been convicted in federal court in 1999 of conspiracy, fraud, embezzlement and other charges, and given long prison sentences. In the final hours of his presidency, Clinton shortened the sentences. Federal investigators later said there had been no wrongdoing.
The mere suggestion that votes were steered to Hillary Clinton brought expressions of outrage. In Rockland, it was seen as business-as-usual for the Hasidic community, which for more than 30 years has voted as a bloc, usually for Democrats but always for the candidate leaders feel has done — or will do — the most for the community.
The explanation from Ullman, the adult-home administrator, could be construed as a similar form of voter influencing, on a much smaller scale. One difference, though: Some residents of the home, which houses about 250 people, spoke up to protest what they said was coercion. Bloc voters may be insulated and may not recognize they have other choices, or feel powerless to exercise that choice. Fortunately, in the New Monsey Park Home for Adults situation, Board of Elections officials listened, took what they were hearing from residents seriously and began an investigation.
One positive in the situation is that it appears that candidates on that "recommended'' list did not know about it. In fact, most of the ballots that residents were filling out were for the upcoming Independence Party primary, and only one of the four Democratic candidates is running on that line.
Let the investigation play out. In the meantime, anyone eligible who wants to vote by absentee ballot should be aware of certain deadlines. The last day for registered voters to postmark applications for absentee ballots is Sept. 51. Completed and mailed absentee ballots must be postmarked by Sept. 11; they must be received by the Board of Elections by Sept. 19. The last day to deliver a completed absentee ballot in person to the board is Sept. 12. Eligible voters at the adult home — or anyone, for that matter — don't need a crib sheet. Their right to vote for the candidates of their choice must be unsullied, and protected.
Post a Comment
<< Home