Bronx DA Indicts Former Assembly Candidate Hector Ramirez

The Bronx Chronicle Reports that “Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson arrested former Assembly candidate Hector Ramirez along with another individual, Ana Cuevas. They were arraigned, entered pleas of not guilty, and were released on personal recognizance bonds of $25,000 and $10,000, respectively, on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Ramirez was represented by attorney Angel Cruz and Ms. Cuevas was represented by Larry Sheehan.

The charges are related to the 2014 race in the 86th AD where Ramirez was accused of election fraud involving absentee ballots. Ramirez was narrowly defeated by the incumbent Assemblyman Victor Pichard. Pichardo won 86th Assembly District Democratic primary in a Bronx Board of Elections supervised manual recount by TWO votes over two-time challenger Hector Ramirez.”

The indictment is here:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/265940256/Indictment-Ramirez-Hector-Cuevas-Ana-Redacted

NYS Board Of Elections CoChair Doug Kellner comments on this development:

(1)  The alleged absentee ballot fraud that is the subject of the indictment came to light because the contest was so close that there was extraordinary scrutiny of each absentee ballot application. I have a hard time believing that this type of ballot fraud is unique to New York and is not more common than thought in jurisdictions that have a much higher percentage of vote-by-mail ballots.

(2)  Unrelated to the fraud allegations, this contest was significant because it was only the second time in New York history where a manual hand count of all of the ballots changed the outcome of the contest after the machine count had been canvassed.  In this 2014 Democratic Primary for Member of Assembly in the 86th Assembly District in Bronx County, there were 4158 ballots cast.  After the canvass of absentee, military and affidavit ballots, and the recanvass of the machine results, Hector Ramirez was leading by six votes.  The New York City Board conducted a manual count in accordance with § 4-14.1 of its Canvass Procedures, which requires a hand count where the margin is less than 0.5%. Based on the manual count, Victor Pichardo was declared the winner by a final vote of 1888 to 1886.

http://observer.com/2014/10/pichardo-officially-wins-bronx-assembly-race-recount-by-two-votes/

http://www.bxtimes.com/stories/2014/41/41-election-2014-10-10-bx_2014_41.html

In both cases, the ES&S DS200 machines functioned properly, but there were ballots with marks outside of the voting target that affected the interpretation of the ballot according to New York’s rules regarding voter intent.

Dan Janison: Why Reform Efforts Fall Short In New York

Newsday’s Dan Janison discusses why an endless string of criminal cases against New York elected officials spurs reform efforts and why many of them fail. At the top of his list was the effort to change the way judges are nominated, citing a lawsuit challenging the judicial nominating process. In a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the current scheme of nominating conventions was upheld, holding that party conventions have long been a “accepted manner of selecting party candidates.”

In a concurring opinion with that decision, Justice John Paul Stevens quoted the late Justice Thurgood Marshall’s line ” the Constitution does not prohibit legislatures from enacting stupid laws.” No comment.

Supreme Court To Hear One Person, One Vote Challenge

The  U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from a three judge court in Evenwel v. Abbott, a one-person, one vote case involving the counting of non-citizens in the creation of electoral districts. Rick Hasen provides an excellent overview of the case at his electionlawblog.com

This case could have implications in New York. Depending on how the Court considers and decides this case, New York’s 2010  prisoner reallocation law could be at risk. That law required the removal of state prisoners from prison addresses and reallocated them, whenever possible, to their home census block address prior to incarceration.

Evenwel won’t be heard until sometime later this year (or early next year) and there is no immediate impact. Nationally, anything can happen.

A Look Back: New York in the 1980s

New York Redistricting News

A congressional district population trend map showing changes by district during the 1980s surfaced today. This circa 1986 map was produced by redistricting expert Kim Brace and caught the attention of Members of Congress looking to the 1990 census in every way.

You can see it here:

View original post

A Look Back: New York in the 1980s

A congressional district population trend map showing changes by  district during the 1980s surfaced today. This circa 1986 map was produced by redistricting expert Kim Brace and  caught the attention of Members of Congress looking to the 1990 census in every way.

You can see it here:  

 

Jerry Goldfeder Named Adjunct Teacher of the Year at Fordham Law School

Fordham Law School has named Jerry Goldfeder as Adjunct Teacher of the Year. Goldfeder is a leading New York election law attorney and expert  and serves as Special Counsel at Stroock, Stroock & Lavan LLP. He teaches election law at Fordham Law School and is the author of Goldfeder’s Modern Election Law, now in its third edition.

It is a pleasure to see an election law teacher receive this award. Election Law is not taught at every law school. Jerry has been able to carve a place for the class and himself in New York City (and at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he has also taught). Congratulations!

A copy of Fordham’s press release can be found here:

Fordham Law School Award

Bill by Nassau Democrats Would Limit Government Mailings

Newsday’s Celeste Hadrick reports that “Legislative Democrats in Nassau have filed legislation that would prohibit county officials from using taxpayer dollars to promote political messages.

The bill would ban all nonemergency publicly funded mass mailings 60 days before any primary or general election. It also would require all government mailings to include a “conspicuous notice in bold type” stating it was printed and distributed at taxpayer expense, and disclose the actual cost of the mailing.”

How Congressional District Lines Have Changed from 1791 to 2013

In the Washington Post, Philip Bump presents an interesting and interactive congressional district presentation for several states for different decades ranging  from 1791 to 2013.  Viewers will see how lines have changed over the years for North Carolina, New York City, Los Angeles, Houston and other large cities.

In Mr. Bump’s words, “one year ago today, we looked at the most gerrymandered congressional districts in America. There are some doozies, including a few tortured souls that inspired us to hold contests to give them names. (Examples: “Goofy Kicking Donald Duck,” “The Praying Mantis,” “Beavis Eating Pizza,” “The Upside-down Elephant.”)

Of course, readers should remember that  New York’s 1992 and 2013 maps were drawn by courts (in 1992, the NY  Legislature codified a state court-ordered redistricting plan. In 2013, a federal court developed the congressional plan entirely on its own after the legislature failed to do so). In California, the 2011 plan was drawn by one of the nation’s only “independent” redistricting commissions. Not, of course, that a commission could never “gerrymander!”

September Primary Moved to Thursday

As reported by Nick Reisman in NY State of Politics, “party primaries in New York will be held on a Thursday rather the traditional Tuesday in September following Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s approval today of a new law moving the date.

The primary date this year was moved to Sept. 10, a Thursday in order to observe the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah this year begins Sept. 13 at sundown and runs through Sept. 15, the original primary date.

This isn’t the first time state lawmakers have moved the primary date: In 2012, lawmakers and Cuomo agreed to move the state and local primary elections as the second Tuesday that year fell on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

NY Assembly Votes For Closing Campaign Finance Loophole

The State Assembly approved legislation Tuesday to end  a campaign finance loophole for limited liability companies. A Senate committee chairman still refuses to bring up a similar bill for action in the upper chamber.

As quoted in an AP article, “The LLC loophole is perhaps the most egregious weakness in our laws regulating money in politics,” said Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, the Manhattan Democrat who sponsored it. “It has been the mechanism of choice for certain people to attempt to buy influence wholesale, by giving virtually unlimited amounts of money to politicians’ campaign committees.”