Having spent three decades working in media and politics as an investigative journalist and elected official, I can say with strong authority that I’ve “seen it all.” I’ve interviewed Presidents, former Presidents, those who wanted to be President, and elected officials at every level of government. I then served honorably for nine years as the Erie County Comptroller, same position as Suffolk County Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr. Now I’m “back in” media as the News Director of the South Shore Press.
I’ve seen some eye-popping, mind-blowing things as both a reporter and public servant.
I thought I’d seen it all until the day I was asked by former gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino for help gathering petition signatures for school board candidates he was supporting.
It is a simple task that’s quite common to qualify candidates for public office. You receive a list of registered voters from the neighborhood you’re going to go door-to-door to, knock on the door, ask the registered voter who is supposed to live there for a signature on a petition, and move on to the next house.
New York State requires this process to run for office. Some states simply require you to pay a fee and you’re on the ballot. Not here. In the Empire State, you have to collect a specific amount of signatures to run for office. It really is an incumbent protection program meant to make it very difficult for challengers to compete against sitting elected officials.
Nothing could prepare me for what I experienced going door-to-door in my old neighborhood, an economically impoverished area that many folks were afraid to go to.
After receiving a list of registered voters and addresses, off I went with my clipboard to find these voters, get them to sign, and on to the next.
What I experienced next was quite shocking.
There were clearly abandoned, empty homes where no one lived, yet had registered voters at that specific address. Some of these homes were clearly marked by utility companies as abandoned. There would be a big spray-painted red box on the front of the house, identifying homes as having the utilities shut off.
No one lived there. No one. Yet there were most definitely registered voters at that address.
What. Was. Going. On?
After numerous inquiries, we were told it was the classic case of municipal employees paying a landlord to claim they were living in the city in order to be in compliance with residency requirements. These government workers clearly lived in the suburbs, but needed a city address to show they were “living” in that municipality in order to keep their jobs.
I was sharing this story with the owner of this newspaper, when the light bulb went off for both of us: Let’s begin a series on election integrity in the South Shore Press.
The first thing we did was simply look up the form/application to register to vote in Suffolk County. It’s basically the “honor system.” Anyone at any time can fill out an application to register to vote, put in the address of their choice, and send it in to the Board of Elections.
Question #13 on the form asks you to validate your identity. It asks for your driver’s license number, the last four digits of your social security number, or the most interesting box to check:
"I do not have a New York State driver’s license or a Social Security number."
This got the wheels turning on a special series on election integrity. We’re going to interview lawyers who once worked as legal counsel for the Board of Elections. We’re traveling to multiple states to review their voting machines. We’re going to find answers to one basic question: How prevalent is election fraud?
Keep an eye out for this series over the next few weeks.
We look forward to informing you and holding those in power accountable.