Protecting Your Vote – Absentee Ballots

This is a special message for those who were “encouraged” to vote by absentee ballot and felt pressured to vote a particular way. It does not matter why you felt the pressure – Your vote is your vote, guaranteed by the Constitution. No one but you has the right to determine your vote. This message is to inform you how to free yourself from any pressure and exercise your right to vote as you choose.

In the primary election, Mr. Frank Sparaco and people that he recruited picked up applications for absentee ballots and worked the network of friends and employees in the Clarkstown Highway Department to encourage people to sign the forms and give Mr. Sparaco and company the authority to submit the requests. Mr. Sparaco and company then picked up the absentee ballots, delivered them to the individuals and offered to submit them to the Board of Elections on their behalf. All of this has been tested in court and has been ruled “legal.” The problem comes when someone felt pressured to vote a particular way. Mr. Sparaco and company were not just encouraging voter turnout; they wanted votes for particular candidates.

If you find yourself caught in such a “voting initiative” and have already cast an absentee ballot in the general election, here is how to recover control of your vote.

The Board of Elections will have already seen that you have submitted an absentee ballot and that will be annotated on the roll of voters at your polling site. You have the power to request that your absentee ballot be pulled and that you be allowed to cast your ballot at your polling site. Here is the guidance from the Board of Elections about two ways to do that: (1) Before you go to your polling site, you may call the Board of Elections at (845) 638-5172, explain that you cast an absentee ballot, and say that you wish to vote at the polls. The Board of Elections will pull your absentee ballot and contact the polling site and you will be able to vote. (2) You may go to you polling site. When the poll workers tell you that you have already voted, tell them that you wish to vote at the polls instead of through absentee ballot. The poll workers will contact the Board of Elections, request that your absentee ballot be pulled. Once that is confirmed you will be permitted to exercise your right to vote freely.

Your decisions concerning how you vote are between you and the Board of Elections and are not subject to review by anyone from who you felt pressure. Enjoy exercising your right, as a free citizen of these United States, to vote your conscience.