Monsey, NY - Election Probe Into Adult Home Widens

Monsey, NY - Questions continue to mount as state and county officials investigate claims that the administrator of an adult home threatened its residents to get them to vote for four Democrats.

The state Department of Health visited the New Monsey Park Home for Adults, in part because of complaints regarding voter coercion, department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said. "We are investigating the conditions and services at the New Monsey Park home, including the potential misuse of residents' funds," he said.

Board of Elections officials said that election inspectors who were sent Aug. 25 to collect absentee ballots at the home were told by some of the residents that home administrator Yitzy Ullman had given them a list of candidates and told them to vote for those candidates or their television privileges would be suspended.
The inspectors were told money was also involved in the threats, officials said. "Our priority remains protecting the well-being, safety and rights of the residents," Hammond said.

Ullman has said that the facility distributed the list of candidates' names as a recommendation, and he denied any coercion.
"They're coming up and saying, 'Who should we vote for?' " he said last week. He added that the candidates on the list had proved to be advocates for health rights and the mentally ill, among other interests of the home's residents.

Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Joan Silvestri said the matter, is under investigation by the county District Attorney's Office.
Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Ann Marie Kelly said that in addition to the inspectors' reports, she is also suspicious of the volume of Democratic registrations that came in from the home on the last day to register for the primary.
Of the 97 registered Democrats at New Monsey Park, 47 of them were registered just recently. "That's a lot of movement in one building for the cutoff," she said.