New York State Board Of Elections

“DO YOUR JOB, PLEASE!”

By Marilyn Hornik

New York Citizens Audit today publicly called on the New York Board of Elections Commissioners to “Do Your Job, Please!” in response to what is termed NYSBOE’s inattentiveness, lethargy and abandonment of their sworn duty to uphold the law and maintain voter rolls that are lawfully accurate beyond question. NY Citizens Audit has identified issues in the voter rolls affecting 5,142,950 possible registration violations, and 745,294 possible voting violations that need to be reconciled.

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NY Citizens Audit Executive Director Marly Hornik stated that “This is a very serious but totally non-partisan effort. Either you believe in the law or you do not. If the voter rolls are not maintained beyond questionable integrity as required by the law, we really do not have a democratic society, and America certainly cannot hold itself out to be a beacon of liberty in the world. Before New York voters go to vote again, these issues must be resolved. The rolls must be rock solid. Otherwise, the voters are wasting their time in going through an exercise that is mocking democracy. It is mocking each voter. That’s not the America we deserve and it is squarely in the hands of the NYSBOE Commissioners to investigate.”

NY Citizens Audit provided NYSBOE with substantial documented evidence of massive anomalies in the voter registration rolls in May of 2022 and filed a formal complaint with the Division of Election Law Enforcement in August 2023. Since then, NYSBOE has done nothing to investigate the issues, has misrepresented that it never received any documented information about the issues, and went so far as to discuss having NY Citizens Audit personnel arrested in reaction to public calls seeking clarification of serious problems in the voter rolls which NYSBOE is charged to manage under New York and Federal law.

This summer NYSBOE disclosed that, rather than investigating issues in the voter rolls brought to its attention, it filed complaints with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement in addition to issuing a media alert designed to intimidate the public against cooperating with voter registration inquiries. NY Citizens Audit has called for public disclosure of these complaints, public accounting for the alleged investigations of the complaints and continuously has called out the apparent issues with the voter rolls, seeking investigation of specific issues it has brought to NYSBOE’s attention. Hornik described the situation as, “It is simply amazing that NYSBOE has disclosed nothing as to what it is doing to reconcile and explain to the public what are apparent serious anomalies in the voter rolls, yet it can shake off its lethargy ‘in a New York minute’ to engage an all-out effort to intimidate the public so these issues can hide in the shadows. There is something very wrong here.”

“There is nothing more fundamental to America than a fair, legal system of elections. To ignore obvious issues in the voter rolls and refuse to investigate is a complete derogation of the duty and a disregard of the Commissioners’ sworn duty and legal requirement in the oath required by Article XIII, Section 1 of the New York State Constitution. That oath is not a joke, nor should it be viewed as such.”

NYSBOE is statutorily charged with maintaining the voter rolls. NY Citizens Audit Legislative Director Steve Gillan believes voter registration is, “Essential to maintaining the integrity of New York’s voting system and America’s democratic political system. That is why under New York law, citizens have a statutory right to inspect the voter rolls. That right is worthless if the NYSBOE ignores the anomalies evident to anyone who examines the rolls.”

Gillan is shocked but not surprised at what he describes as “NYSBOE’s standing in front of a dumpster fire and ignoring a call to the fire department.” Hornik added: “Anyone’s first priority would be to show some concern about the integrity of the voter rolls, and the public is paying these Commissioners while they are doing the exact opposite. I think they have forgotten they work for the public. Hunkering down and attacking the messenger is not the right attitude.”