Day's Challenger Rebukes Him On Voter Probe

Thomas Sullivan, who is challenging Rockland County Executive Ed Day for the Conservative Party line in the county executive race this fall, issued a scathing response to Day's Thursday press conference seeking an investigation into 500+ voter registration forms brought in by three people right before the deadline to register for the Conservative Primary, which is Sept. 12.

The Rockland County Conservative Party had 3,926 active and inactive voters on the rolls as of April 1, 2017, according to the Rockland County Board of Elections. Of those, 1,572 were in Ramapo. With the addition of 500 new voters, the number of Conservative Party voters registered in Ramapo has jumped by 31 percent.

Day has asked for an investigation into possible voter registration irregularities. He said he suspected local developers of scheming against the county's stand on uncontrolled growth.

But Sullivan said Day was targeting a specific group of voters.

“Ed Day should be ashamed of himself," Sullivan's statement said. "If he wanted to create meaningful reform in this county, he would make sure as many of our voters register and participate as possible. Instead, Ed Day is trying to disenfranchise a specific group of voters who are simply trying to exercise their basic right to vote. It is disgraceful. Instead of hurling baseless allegations and complaining about routine voter registration activities that he himself admits are perfectly legal, Ed Day should focus on making his case to these newly registered voters."

Sullivan's campaign committee also sent out this letter they received after asking a lawyer about the matter:

Re: Voter Registration Election Law Cases
Dear Mr. Sullivan:
Your campaign requested our firm’s professional opinion about the legality of two issues
concerning the election law (1) the effect of a person registering in a new county, and (2)
whether the entire voter registration card must be filled out, including the addition of voter
history. Below is our legal analysis on the issue.
A. Change of Enrollment
Election Law § 5-208 states that “the board of elections shall transfer the registration and
enrollment of any voter for whom it receives a notice of change of address to another address in
the same county or city.” However, under Election Law § 5-400, a voter’s registration shall be
automatically cancelled if he or she “moved his residence outside the city or county in which he
is registered.” This issue was litigated under the case of Coopersmith v. Ortutay, (76 AD3d 651
[Second Department 2010]). In Coopersmith, Debra Ortutay moved from Kings County to
Rockland County and immediately registered to vote with the Independence Party. A court
action was initiated to invalidate Ms. Ortutay’s registration because she was previously
registered to vote in Kings County. The Appellate Division found:

When Debra Ortutay changed her residence from Kings County to
Rockland County, and registered to vote in Rockland County, she moved
outside of the city in which she was registered, and was no longer eligible
to vote in Kings County.
Contrary to the petitioners' contention, the reference to "previously
registered" voters, as used in Election Law § 5-302 (2), is to voters who
are already registered to vote with the same county or city board of
elections that is considering the application. Under the Election Law,
Debra Ortutay's registration in Rockland County must be deemed a new
registration or reregistration, rather than a transfer of registration under
Election Law § 5-208 and, thus, is not subject to the waiting period
imposed on changes of enrollment pursuant to Election Law § 5-302 (2)
and § 5-304 Since Debra Ortutay was not "previously registered" in
Rockland County, she was properly enrolled in the Independence Party as
of the date she registered to vote in Rockland County, even if her
registration in Kings County had not yet been formally cancelled pursuant
to Election Law § 5-402.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).

The Coopersmith opinion was reaffirmed this year in Dietl v. Board of Elections (151
AD3d 504), where the court found that the voter’s registration was automatically cancelled when
he changed counties.
It is therefore our professional opinion that if a voter changes residence from outside of
Rockland County to Rockland County, their previous voter registration is cancelled, allowing
them to register with a new party.
B. Information Required on the Voter Registration Card
Election Law Election Law § 5-100 requires that a person be registered to vote in order to
do so. The only qualifications for a person to vote are found in Election Law § 5-102, which
states:

No person shall be qualified to register for and vote at any election unless
he is a citizen of the United States and is or will be, on the day of such
election, eighteen years of age or over, and a resident of this state and of
the county, city or village for a minimum of thirty days next preceding
such election.
More so, the voter registration card has certain mandatory requirements. For
example, a person must select a form of identification (box 13), and must include a
voter’s qualifications, including their address. There is no requirement to fill the form
out to completion, and only the information necessary to enroll a voter is required. It is
also common practice for a voter to not fill out his voting history.
Conclusion
It is well defined case law that a voter’s registration is automatically cancelled
when he or she moves from one county to another (with the exception of New York
City). The cancellation of a person’s registration allows them to enroll in a new party
and is not deemed a transfer. Further, it is not a fatal defect to a person’s registration to
omit certain pieces of information on the voter registration card. Please feel free to
contact our office with any further questions or concerns.

Very Truly Yours,
DANIEL SZALKIEWICZ & ASSOCIATES, P.C.

By: Daniel S. Szalkiewicz, Esq.

But Day's campaign manager Dan Weisberg made points on Facebook about the Ramapo registrations, specially given that Day was unanimously endorsed by both the Rockland Conservative Party Committee and the New York State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long.

“Where did over 500 new conservative voters come from and why did they register?” asked Weisberg, adding “Frankly, this is a question every concerned Rockland County voter should be asking.”

Weisberg said the number of new registrations for the Conservative Party in the time span of one month is more than five times the average yearly enrollment for that same party dating back to 2014. Here are the numbers:

• 2014 – 85 new registrations
• 2015 – 95 new registrations
• 2016 – 122 new registrations
• July 18 - August 18, 2017 – 559 new registrations

He said the Day campaign started asking questions with the discovery of 12 individuals who all registered on the same date at the same address. "Notably, the address listed for these 12 individuals is in significant disarray with no outward indication of residential use, and the individuals purportedly living at this address did not provide specific apartment numbers," he said.

He said people are picking up five absentee ballots (the legal limit) at a time, ostensibly to bring them to these same “new” voters to complete. These people would then return the “completed” ballots directly to the Board of Elections. That appears to him to be a concerted effort to prevent absentee ballots from being mailed to these “new” registrants, thus validating their addresses, bypassing the normal, confirmatory process that voters abide by when casting a ballot in person, he said.

“In short, what this means is that we will never know exactly who is casting that ballot and amazingly, whether this person even exists. There is not true check or balance in this process, as one without any basic identification can become a voter.

"None of this passes the smell test,” said Weisberg.