Sullivan County’s Board of Elections has backed claims that more than 100 residents of the upstate New York village of Bloomingburg — including Orthodox developer Shalom Lamm and his family and about 100 Satmar hasidim— were not legally eligible to vote in last month’s contentious local elections. The Commissioners determined that registrants’ lack of presence in the village prior to the election date has “cast an aura of sham.”
The Forward reports:
Sullivan County’s Board of Elections has backed claims that more than 100 residents of the upstate New York village of Bloomingburg — including Orthodox developer Shalom Lamm and his family — were not legally eligible to vote in last month’s contentious local elections.
Lamm announced Wednesday that he would end his fight over the election results, according to the Times Herald-Record.
In documents obtained by The Forward, the Department of Elections claims that more than 100 newly registered voters living in Lamm-owned properties throughout the village had not lived there for the required 30 days before voting or were already registered to vote elsewhere in the country. In one case, registration forms were altered photocopies with addresses that do not match the original documents.
The Commissioners determined that registrants’ lack of presence in the village prior to the election date has “cast an aura of sham.”
The documents allege that Lamm, who local residents believe has been trying to ensure that Mayor Berentsen stays in power, was already registered to vote in West Hampstead, N.Y. Two of his family members who also voted in the elections live full-time in Israel and another studies at Yeshiva University in New York City.…
Not to nitpick too much, but FailedMessiah.com broke the story proving Lamm's actual residence is in West Hemptstead and the fact that his daughter and son-in-law live in Israel full time and work there.
The Forward also fails to mention that most, if not all, of those disqualified voters used addresses owned by Lamm when registering to vote and 20 of them claimed to live in one small property owned by Lamm.
A Satmar rabbi publicly offered hasidim money to move to Bloomingburg to vote in the election, as well.
The Forward made a video reeport about Bloomingburg that fails to mention the infamous Yiddish-language Der Yid 16-page advertising suppliment that marketed Lamm's development as a new Satmar shtetl called Kiryas Yated Lev.
It also fails to mention the alleged bribe from Lamm to Bloomingburg's soon to be former mayor and both the video and the written report fail to mention that the FBI raided Lamm's Bloomingburg office and many of his properties last month.
In the video, Lamm makes the claim that his opponents are anti-Semitic and the video reinforces that claim somewhat, but does not say that some of Lamm's strident opponents are Jews.
None of this is a surprise. The Forward is trying to market its failing Yiddish edition to haredim, especially to Satmar hasidim, and has been skewing news coverage to appeal to Satmar.
The one good thing in its video report is that it shows pictures of the inside of Lamm's model townhouse in Bloomingburg. There sitting on a table is a large silver Hanukkah menorah.
Related Post:
Shalom Lamm Lied About Legal Residence.