The suit alleges Ramapo officials allowed unregistered voters to cast ballots at certain polling places but failed to tell other polling places to do the same. This allegedly allowed haredi and other voters aligned with town officials who opposed shifting to a ward-based election system to have greater and therefore unequal access to voting while proponents of the ward system who were unregistered were often turned away from the polls by election officials.
Ramapo Residents File Suit Over Allegedly Tainted Election That Favored Haredim
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Three Rockland County residents filed suit in New York State Supreme Court in a bid to overturn the results of the Town of Ramapo's ward referendum, the Journal News reported. The three – Deborah Seidman-Munitz, Michael Parietti and Robert Romanowski – want the court to toss the referendum votes and order a new election.
The three claim Ramapo officials mismanaged the referendum held on September 30, 2014. The votes cast last year were only recently-certified by local election officials after a judge ordered it.
The suit alleges Ramapo officials allowed unregistered voters to cast ballots at certain polling places but failed to tell other polling places to do the same. This allegedly allowed haredi and other voters aligned with town officials who opposed shifting to a ward-based election system to have greater and therefore unequal access to voting while proponents of the ward system who were unregistered were often turned away from the polls by election officials.
"The ward referendum process was so flawed, from beginning to end, due to the conduct of the town, its town clerk and other employees, and this improper conduct disenfranchised voters," the suit reportedly says.
Registered voters supported the proposed shift to the ward system 14,268 to 13,727, and approved expanding the town board from four to six members 14,224 to 13,790. Both steps would have reduced the power of the haredi bloc vote, which currently controls the town (and the county).
But more than 1,850 affidavit ballots accepted from the select unregistered voters defeated the two changes. The ward system lost 15,581 to 14,687, and the board expansion lost 15,648 to 14,644.
"The poll workers were not trained and were given different instructions by the town on how to handle unregistered voters at different polling locations. We have no idea how many people didn't show up to vote or were turned away from filing affidavit ballots [because of this,]” Seidman-Munitz said.
After the vote last September, based on the widespread voter confusion and the town’s apparent mishandling of the election, New York State Supreme (i.e., lower) Court Justice Margaret Garvey ordered a new election. But a New York State Appellate Division panel overruled her on June 24 and ordered that the votes be counted.
Parietti and Romanowski, two of the three residents who filed the new suit, previously spent several years in court getting approval for the referendum vote itself after Town Clerk Christopher Sampson reportedly rejected their completely legal petition calling for the referendum.