Haslett-Rudiano 'botched the maintenance of the voter roll'

[Donkees]

Brooklyn Election Official Suspended for Reportedly Botching Voter Roll, Purging 125,000 Names


The New York Daily News is citing multiple unnamed sources reporting that the reason Haslett-Rudiano has been suspended, and will ultimately be fired, is that she botched the maintenance of the voter roll.

The problems began when she was trying to clean up the voting books, which must be periodically purged to eliminate people who die, move or are ineligible for other reasons. Sources said she skipped one of the steps that was built in to stop the system from purging eligible voters, which caused a chain reaction that led to people being improperly removed. Brooklyn lost 102,717 — or 8% — of its active voters from Nov. 1 2015 through April 1, 2016, according to state stats. It’s the only county in the state that lost voters in that time period.
"The administration of the voter rolls in Brooklyn is of major concern to our office and is a focus of our investigation," New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/21/elections_board_suspends_brooklyn_official_for_purging_125_000_from_voter.html

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Sacrificial lamb

[polichick]

4. Let's hope she talks - but she'll probably be too scared.

[Donkees]

2. CBS New York excerpt:

“Why is it alleged that 125,000 people have been removed from the voter rolls? Why did 60,000 people receive notices to vote that didn’t have the primary date? Why were people told they were in the wrong polling place time and time again?” New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Tuesday. “The next president of the United States could very easily be decided tonight and yet the incompetence of the Board of Elections puts a cloud over these results.”


The most common complaint was voters being told they weren’t registered, followed by being told they were not registered with a political party, and the denial of affidavit ballots when requested.

Tommy Hartung, of Queens, told CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez the New York primary was the first time he registered to vote after finding a candidate he supported.

“I was approved in their system. I got an approval letter,” he said. “And I went to the polls station and I wasn’t in the book.”

And he wasn’t the only one. Several viewers sounded off to CBS2.

“Voted in Brooklyn and they couldn’t find me and I’ve voted for 40 years straight,” Ramona Holman wrote.

“Couldn’t vote because they dropped my name from the list despite being an active registered voter at the right location. Pathetic,” Ryan McLoughlin wrote.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/04/21/board-of-elections-official-removed/

[nc4bo]

3. Something smells like rotted fish heads. Must keep digging. nt

[FlatBaroque]

5. LOL..."botched"... they really think we're idiots. /

[FourScore]

6. Uh-huh. Right. n/t

[Donkees]

7. NY Post excerpt:

The solo suspension of Diane Haslett-Rudiano from her $125,000-a-year post over widespread polling problems is raising eyebrows that extend beyond party lines.

Democrat Betty Ann Canizio, the BOE Deputy Clerk for Brooklyn, is the official primarily responsible for overseeing the borough’s Democratic voting rolls while Haslett-Rudiano, a Republican, oversees her party’s rolls, sources said.

“It sounds like they cut a deal to make the Republican the scapegoat and protect Betty Ann,” said an elected Brooklyn official who’s a Democrat.

Canizio is an ally of Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Frank Seddio. She has a long history as a borough district leader of rubber-stamping his candidate nominations and political appointments. Seddio used his political muscle to help Canizio, 68, secure her $120,000-a-year post, sources said.

BOE sources say she’s routinely absent or works half days. She failed to show up for work Thursday and wasn’t at her Bay Ridge home when visited by a Post reporter.



Canizio was also at the center of a illegal parking placard scandal that rocked her office — yet somehow avoided punishment.

Two Brooklyn elected officials told The Post Canizio bragged at a Democratic committee meeting in 2014 that she illegally gave away her city-issued parking placard to her husband so he could avoid tickets. She then recruited David Annarummo, a BOE administrative associate, to drive her to and from work as part of his duties.

Annarummo was one of the five staffers busted using fake, photocopied parking placards and slapped with fines of up to $500 by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

He signed a disposition last September admitting to using a “forged” permit to drive his boss to work from June to December of 2014. His statement never mentioned Canizio by name but notes “the deputy chief clerk was in the vehicle while the forged BOE parking permit was displayed in the windshield. For this reason, I believed that the heads of the BOE Brooklyn Borough Office were aware of and condoned employees’ use of the forged parking permits.”


“It’s an utter disgrace that Betty Anne got off without even a slap on the wrist from the Conflicts of Interest Board, considering she was well aware the fake placards were being photocopied and distributed like candy at her office,” said one Brooklyn politician.

The internal investigation by BOE comes after state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and City Comptroller Scott Stringer already announced they’re investigating widespread complaints from voters at polling sites citywide during Tuesday’s primaries.

When reached by phone, Halsett-Rudiano and Canizio declined comment.

The COIB also declined comment.

BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan said “we don’t comment on personnel matters” when asked why Canizio has yet to be reprimanded.

Meanwhile, Canizio is currently snubbing election law. She is a longtime district leader representing Bensonhurst but recently moved to Bay Ridge. She plans to run for district leader in Bay Ridge in September.

http://nypost.com/2016/04/21/board-of-elections-official-scapegoated-for-voting-mess/

[unc70]

8. That looks really bad.

Looks like a bright light is being aimed at some pockets of bipartisan corruption.

[Jennylynn]

9. Count the Provisionals

Dammit.

[jwirr]

10. There are other places this happened: Iowa, Nevada, Illinois,

NY. Was she there also?