— PART 2 IN A MULTI-PART SERIES —
Focus — Early timeline of State Senator Martin Golden’s push in the NYS Senate and at NYC Board of Elections for using the Old Election Machines in the 2013 Primary — What made Golden’s position shift from completely uncaring to extremely active ?
The “need” to take the ancient mechanical voting machines out of moth balls and to use them for the 2013 NYC primaries was directly attributable to foot dragging by the NYS legislature in setting a 2013 election calendar that would allow the BOE sufficient time to turn around the current optical scanning machines between primary day and a possible run-off primary. In particular, it was foot dragging in the Republican controlled state senate that made better alternative options pending in the assembly impossible.
Even before the 2012 presidential election, many people having knowledge of the special needs in play with the candidacies for mayor and other municipal offices involved in the 2013 primary were calling for a primary day significantly earlier than September 10, 2013. On October 4, 2012, an article in Crain’s New York had reported that, “The state Legislature is considering a proposal to move the city's 2013 primary day to June from September.... The city's Board of Elections is requesting the date switch to consolidate the primaries for state and local races, and to allow election officials to prepare and test new electronic voting machines. *** The current September date for the citywide primary is a "legal impossibility," said J.C. Polanco, the Bronx commissioner for the Board of Elections. Moving the date to June would save taxpayer dollars and avoid the potentially dangerous situation of voters and schoolchildren intermingling at polling locations, he said.” ( See “Primary date switch could upend 2013 race” 10/4/13, Crain’s New York
[www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20121004/INS/121009956?]). That article also gave an early indication that the Republicans in the NYS senate were not on board with that simple fix for the problem — “A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver expressed support for an earlier primary. ‘What that date would be going forward is uncertain,’ he said. ‘We would want to consult with local officials and our members to determine what would work best.’ A spokesman for the Senate Republicans did not respond.”
By early December 2012 the need to set a new NYC primary date for 2013 had become urgent and it had become clear that certain Republicans in the State Senate were dragging their feet on the easiest and most reasonable way of solving the City’s primary scheduling problems. At that time, it was reported that, “[Officials] warned Wednesday that the city is headed toward ‘potential catastrophe’ unless lawmakers in Albany vote to move up the city’s primary day in 2013. *** [ Douglas Kellner, co-chairman of the New York State Board of Elections] said ‘it is absolutely urgent’ that state lawmakers act to move the city’s 2013 primary — when New Yorkers will vote for candidates for the mayoral election — from September to June. The date change would give officials enough time to stage a run-off election in case any citywide candidate fails to garner more than 40 percent of the vote, he said. *** ‘The time between the primary election and the runoff election is inadequate,’ he said, warning that ‘there is a potential for a meltdown if there is a close primary election.’ *** ‘That’s an urgent priority,’ he said of the move, which has already been approved by the Assembly, but still must clear the Senate.”
(See “Board of Elections Seeks Raise for Poll Workers Despite Voters' Complaints” by Jill Colvin 12/6/12, updated on 12/6/12
[http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121206/new-york-city/board-of-elections-seeks-raise-for-poll-workers-despite-voters-complaints]).
Sources close to State Senator Martin Golden have specifically stated that very early in this process, the general attitude of the leadership of NYS Senate Republicans, who at that time still held a clear majority in the NYS State Senate, was that any 2013 Municipal Primary problems were problems that the Democrats had a real interest in solving; and why should Republicans do anything to help the Democrats solve any of their problems.
On January 8, 2013 the New York City Board of Elections issued a formal report that
said it had repeatedly stated that it couldn’t run a primary election on September 10, 2013 and then turn around its machinery and hold a run-off primary two weeks later using the current computerized electronic voting machines. That’s because it would take too much time to tally the votes, finally determine the top candidates for the run-off, and then print ballots and test the system prior to the runoff. As a result the Board said that if the dates didn’t get changed, the the BOE indicated it was exploring various contingency plans.(See “City Board of Elections Mulls Lever Machines for Upcoming Vote” by Brigid Bergin 2/19/13:, WNYC News
[http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2013/feb/19/nyc-board-elections-contemplates-lever-machines-again/]). After publishing the formal report, BOE president Fred Umane said that bringing back those lever machines was a remote possibility – "We have them. We’ve kept them just for emergencies so it might be something that ultimately could happen, but it’s unlikely."
Ms. Bergin who has reported on this matter from the beginning was also the first to connect the possible use of the older lever-operated election machines with the coup involving the GOP commissioners when she ominously made he following observation at the end of her article cited above: “The BOE is also experiencing a shake up of its membership after Republican City Council members decided to take advantage of a section of election law that allows them to replace county commissioners if the party leader does not submit their name for Council approval within a certain number of days at the start of the year. There is a total of 10 commissioners - two from each borough by party. So far, the Republican commissioners from Brooklyn and Queens have been replaced; the status of the commissioners from Manhattan and the Bronx is unclear.”
One of the things that changed was control of the Board of Elections, another was with the administration of the BOE, and another was a change of the Board’s position on the use of the old voting machines to expedite the scheduling of the 2013 primary and any possible run-offs. State Senator Golden and/or his hand-picked Commissioner on the NYC BOE, Simon Shamoun was central to all of this.
Another thing that changed was the position of the Republicans in the NYS Senate, most notably — Marty Golden. What is very odd in this “timeline” is that, in the space of about six months, senate Republicans in general, and State Senator Golden in particular, go from a position of “Why should we help the Democrats solving their problems [with the scheduling of the 2013 primaries] ?” to taking the lead in passing the legislation that enabled the NYC BOE to employ what it once indicated was its least-favored option in dealing with that problem.
Why did Golden take the lead in all of this starting early in 2013; when in mid- to late-2012, Golden and key players on his staff, who are also deeply involved in his political operation, were openly expressing their attitude — “Why should we help the Democrats solving their problems [with the scheduling of the 2013 primaries] ....” ?
4 comments:
This is all connected to the Democratic and Conservative Party endorsed candidates in Borough Park, Parkville and Midwood. The proof of that is that JP-Updates reprinted an article about Republican Leader Dean Skelos not wanting the 2012 primary before September. Allowing an earlier Democratic or Conservative Party primary along with the presidential or congressional primaries would have been bad for the candidate hand-picked by Skelos, the Democrat Simcha Felder who also had a chance to register a large number of new Conservative party members and was able to do an OTB against David Storobin on the original September primary day. Yossi Gestetner, who does JP-Updates recognized this was like a prediction of what was going to happen to Storobin. Also Kassar always makes threats about anybody who does an OTB for a Conservative Party primary, but he immediately switched to Felder right after he did it.
In the year 2013 it was all to benefit Goldens and Kassars candidate - Democratic City Councilman David Greenfield. The old voting machines can be used to make Greenfield’s total vote higher and Joseph Hayon’s votes look lower.
You chirp like cricket on late summer night....
Focus ! Focus ! Focus !
For now, focus on the record and don’t impute improper motivation until you’ve seen some evidence of actual improper activity. All things in good time.
In any case, thank you. Your reference to Yossi Gestetner’s J-P Updates was helpful in uncovering the second half of the following comment; it did help complete the recent picture on the scheduling of primaries.
BACKFILL: It was reported early in February 2013 that Senate GOP Leader Dean Skelos said he opposed moving the primary to June 2013 despite concerns from the New York City Board of Elections that a later date would hurt its ability to conduct a runoff election, if one were needed following a normally scheduled primary. Skelos specifically indicated a June date would negatively impact the end of the legislative session for 2013 ( See “No June Mayoral Primary, Senate GOP Leader Dean Skelos Says” by Ken Lovett, 2/6/13, Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/02/no-june-mayoral-primary-senate-gop-leader-dean-skelos-says]). However, the 2013 primary isn’t the first time that Republicans in the NYS Senate refused to cooperate with Democrats in the Assembly in setting (a) primary date(s).
Skelos had used a similar argument for the prior election cycle, when he and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver couldn't agree on when to hold primary day other than the normal September 11th primary day (See also “Dean Skelos Really Doesn’t Want an Earlier Primary Date” by Colin Campbell, 2/14/12, NY Observer/Politicker [http://politicker.com/2012/02/dean-skelos-really-doesnt-want-an-earlier-primary-date/]). In 2012 Skelos pushed for August while Silver wanted June In that year, the state wound up with three different primaries: A presidential in April, a court-ordered congressional primary in June and votes in state races on September 11th.
COMING SOON: One of the upcoming parts in this "MULTI-PART SERIES" will specifically deal with the 1996 Primary Elections --- the last time massive fraud was alleged in connection with the distribution and use of the lever-style mechanical voting machines. Those are exactly the same machines that I have shown State Senator Martin Golden moved heaven and earth to have re-employed to be re-deployed for use and possible abuse in the upcoming 2013 NYC primaries.
For a large scale theft of an election on the scale of a borough-wide primary in Brooklyn, you need a perfect storm of cooperation between Republican and Democratic operatives at the NYC Board of Elections; and in particular, that cooperation has to extend to the Brooklyn Office of the NYC BOE, to the BOE shop and warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and, to at least several of the crews on trucks distributing, maintaining and servicing the machines around the borough up to and including Primary Day.
The upcoming analysis of the claimed thefts of at least two of the 1996 primaries, one Republican and at least one Democratic, will describe the rampant irregularities that were virtually un-refuted, as well as other past and recent allegations concerning the primaries of 1996 and the parallel court cases, one Republican and one Democratic, that followed. These cases, and related matters, resulted in both administrative and criminal investigations and prosecutions.
Of particular interest is the fact that so many of the key Republican players involved in the allegations of fraud in the 1996 primary are still key players in the 2013 GOP primary. It is very important to take note, right now, that if there are any experts on the template for election fraud by the use and abuse of the mechanical voting machines that were largely described on the record in 1996, they would have been among the leadership of the Seergy Republican Club in 1996. This is the very same Seergy Republican Club, whose leaders in 2013 have openly announced at the Brooklyn BOE that they are "...the new sheriffs in town..." --- one of those Seergy Club leaders is mentioned in the record of the 1996 allegations, and she is one and the same person running for leader out of the Seergy Club in 2013.
I will also demonstrate how the perfect storm for election theft exists for the 2013 primaries, and how it is almost identical to the perfect storm that existed in and around the 1996 primaries.
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