Absentee Votes Push Conservative Insurgent Over Day in Primary

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — After counting absentee ballots, the Rockland Board of Elections announced Tuesday that Thomas Sullivan had beaten County Executive Ed Day in the Conservative Primary. Day accused the Sullivan campaign and its backers of voter fraud. Sullivan called himself "the only true conservative running for County Executive." And the county Conservative Party expressed great dismay.

Before Primary Day, Rockland Conservative Party Chairman William Beckmann emphasized in an interview with Patch that the party had endorsed Ed Day. He said the party's screening committee had welcomed and interviewed candidates seeking the party's endorsement, and Thomas Sullivan had not been among them.

Furthermore, he was dismayed about a campaign dirty trick: a letter sent to Rockland Conservative voters supporting Sullivan and signed "Peter MacKenzie" for the "Conservative Party Members Association."

"There is no one registered to vote in Rockland County under that name," he said, nor is there a "members association" affiliated with the party in Rockland.

The Conservative Party leaders told its members that Sullivan was "bought and paid for by the Ramapo Democrat machine" and cited 500 new voter registrations this summer as "an attempt to skew and compromise the electoral process." The registrations were brought to the Board of Elections by three people. Some had been registered to vote in Brooklyn, Orange and Sullivan counties. Day said he suspected that the sudden increase in registrations stemmed from powerful developers who oppose his efforts as County Executive to stop uncontrolled growth in Ramapo.

Officials with the Sullivan campaign said the registrations followed state law.

According to the Rockland County Times, most of the 168 absentee ballots filed for the primary were by voters in Ramapo, many of them newly registered.

Before the absentee ballots were counted, Day had a lead over Sullivan, 574 to 520 in votes cast in person on Primary Day, according to unofficial results. There were 13 ballots held pending court action, according to Commissioner of Elections Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky.

In response to the Board of Elections announcement, the Sullivan campaign put out this statement:

“It is now clear that our campaign for County Executive has successfully won the primary for the Conservative Party line by a margin that is greater than the number of ballots Ed Day is trying to challenge. We were victorious because we were able to register new voters who wanted to support the only registered member of the Conservative Party in this race and the only true conservative running for County Executive. The time has come for Ed Day to stop trying to disenfranchise legitimate voters and get on with the campaign the voters of Rockland County deserve. If he expects to win a second term, he shouldn’t be afraid to have a real debate about which candidate will cut wasteful spending, reduce our taxes, protect our communities.”

The Ed Day campaign put out this statement:

It has become clear that the Rockland Conservative Party has been seriously compromised. The potential voter fraud that occurred through phony registrations and fraudulent absentee ballots has made this evident.

Election officials reported that that after counting an unprecedented number of absentee ballots, the Primary Day Conservative Party tally currently is now 647-615 in favor of the Ramapo political machine supported candidate. This unheard of absentee ballot turnaround, both in numbers and in percentages, came on the heels of an actual Primary Day tally where despite an unbelievable influx of over 500 voter registrations in 3 days, County Executive Day was still declared the winner by a 574-520 margin.

This is a wakeup call to all the people of Rockland County. While we have made great strides against overdevelopment over the last four years, our fight is not over.

Those who wish to destroy our way of life are desperately trying to defeat me and take over our county. We will not let that happen.

This current maneuver to take over an established political party should serve as a clarion call to the people of Rockland. This deceptive behavior shocks the senses and defies all belief, and will not be tolerated by us or the people of Rockland. We call on our opponents to condemn this behavior and declare publicly whether they support the good people of Rockland or not. We again repeat our offer and welcome their review of the evidence we have developed that they have yet to accept.

While our campaign now moves forward and looks to continue the good work we have done for the next four years, we will turn all of the information we have obtained over to the District Attorney and U.S. Attorney. We will not delay this process with civil court action and run the risk of delaying the electoral process that includes military ballots, one that County Exec Day's own son serving on active duty is reliant upon.

We are hopeful that this obvious assault on our American way of life, one secured by the blood of patriots, will be investigated and those behind it will be brought to justice.

SEE ALSO:

• Day's Challenger Rebukes Him On Voter Probe
• Probe Needed Of 500+ Last-Minute Voter Registrations: Rockland County Executive
  

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