The Honorable NYS Senator, Zellnor Myrie
Chair: Standing Committee on Elections

The Honorable NYS Assembly Member, Latrice Walker
Chair: Committee on Election Law

Subject: Election Integrity

Dear Senator Myrie and Assembly Member Walker,

Enclosed please find 155 pages of our Election Integrity Petitions. The people of New York State, particularly New York City, deserve free and fair elections. That is not the reality! We write to you in hopes that some steps can be made to change some of the laws regarding this most important process in our State.

We The people of New York need to have confidence in our elections. Without that, our democracy will cease to function. The New York State Legislature needs to focus on free and fair elections by passing common-sense measures and safeguards to ensure our elections are secured and voter fraud is prevented. The people of the State would be better served with a “consumer-oriented” agency that in its mission aims to promote, educate and inform prospective candidates seeking to be party and public office holders. This would stand in stark contrast to the current exclusionary tactics now at play at the New York City Board of Elections that seeks to discharge candidates for petty violations and prohibiting them from gaining access to the ballot.

If we in New York State truly believe that everyone should have access to the ballot and the voters should have a choice, then you at the legislative end must tear down the walls of archaic rules, laws which prevent candidates from obtaining access to the ballot. I provide to you as Exhibit “A” the NYC Board of Elections’ Designating Petition And Opportunity To Ballot Petition Rules For Primary Elections, Adopted on February 12, 2019. This booklet provides examples of how convoluted the candidate process is and how the NYC Board of Elections seeks to exclude or prevent candidates from gaining access to the ballot. May I direct your attention to pages 13-14 in the red booklet enclosed, which address more than “30” different ways a voter on a petition can be excluded (thrown off) and thus a candidate prohibited from gaining access to the ballot. These high school styled antics have got to be stopped. Lawyers have fashioned entire careers on mastering these petty violations, studying the endless case law, and now even publishing books about the election’s chaos at the courthouse. Billions of wasted taxpayer dollars have been expended just trying to navigate these cryptic rules, case law and the opinions of bureaucrats. This process is the juvenile equivalent of playing wack-a-mo and even more insulting is that everyone including yourselves know it. The State Legislature has a duty and obligation to write clear laws that will stop the petty corruption and end the petitioning process altogether and instead usher in a simple filing fee process. Examples of how this can be done lie in the archives of Albany in previous studies and examples lay in states across the nation. This way a citizen in our State seeking public office doesn’t have to hire an Attorney just to gain access to the ballot. This one suggestion alone would shake up the system and turn election officials toward lending assistance rather than punishing potential candidates and turning them away. Ultimately the responsibility for a functioning or dysfunctional system and election process lies with the Legislature. The legislative intent can’t be to cause chaos, can’t be to prohibit citizens from voting and certainly can’t be to intimidate individuals from running for office. Here are just a few suggestions we ask that you evaluate for consideration during 2021 and thereafter:

1. Time Clocks: Amend the law. Require new time clocks that stamp impressions on documents down to a tenth, and one hundredth of a second. Currently they reflect down to the minute by law and within that time a person clocking a document could have two documents clocked in at the same time creating confusion at the NYC Board of Elections because they can’t ascertain which document came in first. To correct this, the law has to be amended to ensure all time clocks read tenths and one hundredth of a second. Make this function of time stamping documents a specifically delineated duty of the Board of Elections’ staff since candidates do not have access to the time stamp machines.
   
2. Conflicts of Interest: You cannot serve two masters. The honesty and integrity of the voting system, and onboarding of the candidate process must be front and center. 1.) Party Bosses Vs Board of Elections’ paid personnel. If someone holds a party position such as a County Committee or State Committee or higher office for a party (whichever party), they should not be able to work, collect payment, consult or have any position or entitlement at the New York State Board of Elections, its County Business Units, nor participate in any of its processes. The Board of Elections is a State Agency and employees paid by our taxes. It is a direct conflict of interest. 2.) Voters and candidates alike need to be able to lean on the Board of Elections’ employees for an honest straight forward assessment of their circumstances. The Board of Elections needs to be Switzerland. It should be consumer-based; not a judge, jury and executioner (seeking to discharge candidates and exclude them from access to the ballot). Candidates and voters should be able to depend on the Board of Elections for comprehensive assistance by experts within the Board of Elections’ employee base. 3.) Borough Commissioners need to be elected by the voters of their own party or done away with entirely. The illicit, unethical and petty conduct that takes place behind the scenes with these “Commissioners” is in a word immature, disrespectful and insulting. Unelected bureaucrats should not have control over our election process.
   
3. Deaths, Move/Relocation: It is fair to assert that voting irregularities and blatant voter fraud due to unclean voter rolls have been going on for years. Evidence of this chaos is included in Exhibits “B” and “C”. In these exhibits you can see a classic case of former residents using an address other than their own. Last year, one of our constituents received four unsolicited absentee ballot applications in the mail for people who have not lived at her home address for at least twenty years. According to voter data, two of them voted in recent elections using her address. The New York City Board of Elections, New York State Republican Party and New York State Senate have been notified and provided with ample evidence about this incident, but to no avail. Exhibit “C” contains the emails that our constituent sent to these agencies regarding this matter, but her concerns fell on deaf ears. As of today, she has not received a response from them. New York State Law needs to better lay out what is to be done at the time of death or when a person moves. It needs to be widely known and the public needs to be educated. The voter rolls are a mess with these problems scattered all over the place. Once the confusion is cleared up, a public information poster needs to be created and posted at Schools and U.S. Post Offices to educate the public. This information also needs to be amply promoted in all Board of Elections’ related materials including websites, election notifications and printed materials. Campaign Finance Boards need to develop and give to each candidate committee a poster that shows the relevant process and outline details of the appropriate process to record moves and deaths. All elected officials should capture this information in their taxpayer funded newsletters that go out to their constituents. Board of Elections’ personnel should be given a period when the voter rolls need to be updated by each year and marked appropriately two weeks prior to any election that moves, and deaths have been so noted and removed or corrected following the demise of the voter. Legislatures need to hold hearings to review those reports. Board of Election personnel need to report on the accuracy of the voter rolls at these hearings.
   
4. Voter ID Laws: Voter fraud is quite real if the voter is not identified properly. If an individual is required to have a personal ID card and NYS Health Check ID to do relevant transactions, it is about time we institute voter ID laws. No longer can we say: “it will cost too much, people won’t be able to do it, it’s racist, it’s depressing, and it will prevent people from voting.” These are all the old stories that are played out. Everyone is now aware since we have gone through the COVID-19 pandemic that ID will be required. Incidents of voter irregularities like the one described herein (as evidenced in the attached Exhibits for validation of that fact) could have been averted if the State Legislature had enacted voter identification laws and the voter rolls had been cleaned. It is way, way overdue. Change the law and let’s stop the nonsense.
   
5. 135,000 Votes: While this horrific incident sends chills down the spine of every concerned voter, it also sends a very negative message and reinforces some voters’ stance: “Why should I vote; the system is rigged!” New York State needs to make a concerted effort to professionalize all its offices and make sure that what happened at the Queens Board of Elections in June 2021 never occurs again. Holding public hearings and focusing on these issues will bring credibility to the overall process. Certified information security professionals need to be on staff ensuring that paid personnel are utilizing the best practices and that measures are taken to correct all inconsistencies. Test data and live data should never in a million years be able to reach one another. The solutions for this are rather well known. But we, as a State, seem to be incapable of developing the legislation to get it done. Please stop this corruption! Standards of data security seem to be lacking and caretakers need to be held accountable for such lazy, routine, and dangerous actions. Our voting system is expected to make us the envy of the world. This callousness needs to be addressed and seriously so.
   
6. Unsolicited Ballots: This newly developed policy under former Governor Cuomo invites corruption, as well as lack of accountability and is a charade being played on the voters. This “invitation to fraud practice” needs to stop immediately. In support of this statement, please see Exhibit “C”. I am providing 4 unsolicited absentee ballot applications mailed to the same address for people who have not lived there for more than twenty years, and some of whom have casted votes in recent elections, as aforementioned. The New York City Board of Elections is broken.  Remedy is desperately warranted.
   
7. Forensic Audits: After every election, no matter how small or large, a public facing forensic audit needs to be done. This is for the health and transparency of the system and process. If we want the voter to participate, we need to show them the process is fair and without question free of corruption or undue influences. The media should be called in to watch.
   
8. Driver’s Licenses: The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles sets very rigorous standards for licensing through the New York State Legislature. Those in violation of the standards are penalized and some very significantly so. However, non-Citizens, Green Card holders and undocumented immigrants in New York State are being issued driver’s licenses. Upon information and belief, non-citizens have voted in previous elections. By way of comparison, the New York State Board of Elections apparently does not uphold the same standards for American citizens compared to the non-citizens. Yet we give the Board of Elections a pass. Why? It is incumbent on the Legislature to pass laws and hold the bureaucracy accountable! Please note as evidence of this lower standard items 1-6 in this very letter as well as extensive Exhibits (enclosed) and mailed to you at our expense, once again the taxpayers taking it on the chin. Throw in, 135,000 illegal votes into the voting system this past primary just to make the point. This diminishes the standard and creates a false flag. Further, during the 9/11 investigation, it was just this type of bureaucratic action that revealed the insanity, insecurity and exposed the lack of safety for our citizens. It appears that once the non-citizens get their driver’s licenses, they are “automatically” registered as voters. The right to vote is taken so serious at one level and herein seems to have no concern whatsoever and legislation needs to be developed to make sure that illegal people are not allowed to vote. Insomuch so, the process of automatic voter registration must be eliminated. The right to vote is for Citizens of our Nation, State and City – stop watering it done. If someone wants to become a citizen, it is on them to do so and not for “OUR” representatives in Albany to do anything to change that without the voters weighing in on election day. Shut this down now before another national disaster takes place!

We hope that these petitions will give cause to reflection on your respective roles. It Is We The People who put you in your seats. It is the trust of the people of New York State that you operate within. Frankly, we think the Board of Elections could be seriously downsized and that candidates could simply file a fee and notice. Money saved could be repurposed for helping those truly in need.

Respectfully submitted,

Joseph R. Concannon,
Founder Queens County Republican Patriots

Attachments:

Queens County Republican Patriots

Informational Brochure, 2021

Exhibit A

New York City Board of Elections 2019 Primary Booklet (Pags13-14)

Exhibit B

Extensive documentation (20Pages), evidence of voter fraud

Exhibit C

Unsolicited Ballots (4)

Cc:          William Barclay, NYS Assembly Minority Leader Rob Ortt, NYS Senate Minority Leader