Zeldin Mailer Listing Wrong Date For Absentee Ballots Sparks Ire

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Once again, Rep. Lee Zeldin has been accused of printing the wrong date for absentee ballot on a mailer sent out to voters — the date printed on the mailer was listed as Nov. 6, not Nov. 5, the date by which absentee ballots must be postmarked.

Zeldin, a Republican who is running for his second term representing the 1st Congressional District, has been accused by opponent, businessman and Democrat Perry Gershon, of purposely printing the date incorrectly — with the alleged intent of suppressing Democratic voters, including college-aged constituents.

College student Kaitlyn Hart wrote to the Suffolk Progressives Facebook group, saying that she'd gotten a flyer for Zeldin at her Binghamton University address, something she didn't understand as she's registered in NY02. "I think it's really shady how the back cover says your ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 6, so people who just look at it and don't open it are literally getting sent false info," she said.

Responding to questions about the mailer, Chris Boyle, spokesperson for the Zeldin campaign, said the mishap was a printing error.

He sent a quote from Scott Nordin, owner of PDQ Print and Mail, which created the flyer: “Unfortunately in a printing error, the absentee ballot mail piece sent out for Lee Zeldin last week had a mistake in the date absentee ballots need to be postmarked by. The Zeldin campaign had sent and approved the piece with Nov. 5, the correct date, but in a printing error, the wrong file was printed. A new run with the corrected date was then sent out.”

Boyle also said the Zeldin campaign "caught that error before going to print and updated the proof, but the printer, unfortunately, ended up using the wrong version by accident without the Nov. 5 date. "A follow up mail piece to the same recipients accurately only has the Nov. 5 date on both sides." Boyle sent a copy of the mailer for review. "Our emails, Facebook ads, website landing page, etc. have all only referenced the Nov. 5 date all along. We absolutely want everyone to be completely aware that the date to postmark absentee ballots is Nov. 5," he said.

Tim Minton, communications director in the Gershon campaign, told Patch the same "mistake" occurred two years ago during the last election, and Zeldin then, too, called it a "printing error and blamed some hapless printer. Two years later and the same 'mistake' occurs targeting only the Democratic voters they would dearly love to suppress, so they can't help Perry Gershon win this race. Once again, they are blaming a hapless printer."

He added: "Here's the reality, and we know it from our own best practices. There is not a mailer that goes out to voters without it being reviewed by a senior official of the campaign." Mailers, he said, are often reviewed personally by the candidate. "In this case, Lee Zeldin would have voters believe that somehow, the exact same 'mistake' occurred two campaigns in a row and no one managed to spot it? Clearly Lee Zeldin thinks his constituents are stupid."

"It's that same supposed stupidity," Minton said, which Zeldin "is counting on to hope his constituents will not notice he hasn't held a Town Hall with them for 18 months."

Pointing to Zeldin's votes on health care and his using the wrong image of a lighthouse, not the Montauk Lighthouse as stated in a campaign commercial, Minton said Zeldin has blamed video editors and others. "Who's next to blame? It's never Lee Zeldin. At what point is Lee Zeldin prepared to step up and take responsibility for his actions?”

Patch photo by Lisa Finn.