Hundreds of votes for Brooklyn D.A. Charles J. Hynes and other favored Satmar candidates appear to be illegally cast by minors who voted on the orders of Satmar leaders who have illegally obtained official voting lists. Many of these minors may have voted multiple times using the names of hasidim who no longer live in Williamsburg or who have died.
Gothamist has all the sordid details – and should win a journalism prize for the work they've done today.
Here's a brief excerpt:
…According to a Board of Elections poll worker and another poll watcher, groups of young Hasidic men attempted to enter the polling station at IS 71 and vote under the names of other citizens who have yet to vote. "They're signing signatures, but the ID they show doesn't match the signature on the forms. Yes, there's been some illegal stuff going on," BOE poll worker Antoinette Reaves said.
An NYPD officer standing outside IS 71 told us he had witnessed four men attempting to vote under the wrong name in the two hours he had been posted there.
While some of the attempts were made by men who looked to be of voting age, others struck poll workers as obviously fraudulent. "They're fourteen, fifteen years old, walking in here with a crowd of people. We stopped them and asked for ID—we know they're too young to go in there. They've been trying it all day," Reaves said. "The same faces are appearing."
While Reaves could not say whether or not any of them have been successful, David Greenberg, a poll watcher for city council candidate Stephen Pierson, said the sheer number of attempts suggested that the problem was more widespread.
"I would definitely expect there are more, it's got to be closer to 20 or two dozen," Greenberg said. "[The BOE workers] are seeing a lot of fraudulent stuff, people are trying to steak in, so they're aggravated as all hell."
Greenberg added, "There was a period of time when we weren't able to come in [to observe] because we didn't have the proper credentials, or so they said. I wouldn't question that there are more people trying this than we can see."…
This is the same polling place where Gothamist found illegal hasidic raffles paired with a list of Satmar-endorsed candidates. Hasidic voters were given a chance at a $250 cash prize or a gift certificate – as long as they voted
But it gets even worse, as Gothamist shows:
…According to a member of the ultra-Orthodox community who claimed intimate knowledge of the faction's electioneering processes, the raffles serve a greater purpose than just enticing voters to cast ballots for their preferred candidates.
"Your name goes into a raffle if you put in that you voted. And they have access constantly to this data so they know who's voted from that," said the source, referring to leaders of Williamsburg's Satmar Ahronim sect. The raffle allegedly provides a list of names that cannot be used by fraudulent voters. At IS 71 earlier today, community members were seen picking up a stack of raffle cards every 20 minutes or so and scanning their barcodes.
The source, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, told us the fraud operation is centered at an ultra-Orthodox wedding hall at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg. Volunteers are allegedly given free food and then "driven to four or five places" to vote under false names. "They have copies of the voter rolls, I don't know how they get them, but they get the names and the signatures," the source alleged.…