Democratic Candidates for Greenburgh File Lawsuit Alleging Invalid Petitions- Attempt to Deny Candidates Petition to Appear on the Ballot

Hello Greenburgh,

Drama in Greenburgh??  It couldn't be but this one is certainly interesting.  I haven't seen any other reporting on this from any blog or local newspaper. This is why you subscribe to my blog!!

On 4/19 a case was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by Town Council Candidates Gina Jackson and Joy Haber along with Town Clerk Candidate Lisa Maria Nero in an attempt to disqualify the petitions of their competitors and deny them a spot on the ballot in the upcoming June Primary Election.  They allege numerous instances of fraud and disqualifying behavior.

Background
At the Feb 2023 Greenburgh Democrats Convention, District Leaders gathered to endorse candidates for elected office.  The endorsement means among other support, that the local party District Leaders will help gather the signatures required to be placed on the ballot.  Lisa Maria Nero was endorsed as the candidate for Town Clerk and Gina Jackson and Joy Haber were endorsed for Town Council.   The three of them, along with other endorsed candidates circulated a petition to gather signatures of eligible voters. 1000 signatures was required. 

Anyone else who wishes to run for these positions is eligible to do so and must gather the required signatures.  This is what I did when I ran in 2019 as a non endorsed candidate.  Anyone is able to do this who wishes to run.  Judith Beville (incumbent candidate for Town Clerk), Manny Areces and Wilburt Preston (candidates for Town Council) teamed up to combine their names on a second petition and circulated that petition to gather signatures to get a spot on the ballot and have a contested primary election.  They filed their petition with a total of 2185 signatures.  

Allegations
I have linked the full case below but the long and short of it is that they allege that an insufficient number of the 2185 signatures were valid either because they were invalid signatures, because proper procedure for witnessing the signatures was not followed, and/or because signatures were fraudulent.  The filing shows the candidates went line by line and objected to any signatures they felt were legally invalid and listed the reasons why.  They also identified instances where petitions were left out in open places, where the person signing as witnessing the signature, could not have actually done so.  Most egregiously, they also allege that pages of signatures were filled out fraudulently, not by the actual voter.  I'll quote from the case;

The subject designating petition included a total of 2185 signatures. The respondent candidates were required to submit 1,000 valid signatures for their names to be placed on the primary ballet. The attached particularized objections allege that 1167 signatures are invalid and if all objections are sustained, the respondent candidates would have a total of 1018 valid signatures, only 18 signatures above the 1000 signature threshold..

However, in addition to the particularized objections set forth in Exhibit 7, petitioners allege that there are additional bases which, in combination with this cause of action or standing on their own, are sufficient to invalidate additional signatures, entire sheets, or the entirety of the BEVILLE-ARECES-PRESTON designating petition, which are set forth below in further detail

The witness statement information at the bottom of sheet No. 72 of the respondent-candidates’ designating petition was completed and signed by respondent WILBERT PRESTON.  However, as the petitioners will show, PRESTON did not witness all of the signatures on Sheet No. 72, and at least eight signatures were falsely dated March 29, 2023.  As demonstrated by the affidavit of Rodney Lederer-Plaskett (Exhibit 1 to this petition), the affidavit of Mary Colon (Exhibit 2 to this petition), and the affidavit of petitioner LISA MARIA NERO (Exhibit 3 to this petition), a petition sheet was left unattended and available for members of the general public to sign at a drugstore known as Valuable Drugs, located at 417 Tarrytown Road, White Plains, NY for a period from March 21, 2023 (and perhaps earlier) to at least March 30, 2023 (and perhaps later). 13. While said petition sheet was left on the pharmacy counter for an unknown period, multiple signatures were placed on the petition, which were not personally witnessed, and yet the witness information statement was completed and signed by respondent-candidate WILBERT PRESTON and included with the volume filed with the Board of Elections.

The name of Gerald Jones, an enrolled member of the Democratic party, appears on four separate petition sheets involved in this Town of Greenburgh election............................... The only rational conclusion that can be drawn from the foregoing is that Gerald Jones’ signature was forged on Sheet No. 85 of the BEVILLE-ARECES-PRESTON and, therefore, the witness identification information on that sheet was fraudulently completed and signed by the respondent candidate MANUEL E. ARECES..................The petitioners herein submit that the conclusion that Gerald Jones’ signature was forged will be further reinforced by the line by line review of signatures purportedly witnessed by MANUEL E. ARECES, which contain numerous similarly printed names and other irregularities.

In the event that the Court’s rulings on the petitioners’ line-by-line challenges and/or the invalidation of signatures based upon fraud by WILBERT PRESTON and/or MANUEL E. ARECES leave any the respondent candidates with 1,000 or more otherwise valid signatures, the entire designating petition should be invalidated because it is permeated by fraud.

Information on the Case can be found here.
Main Case Document
Additional Documents Click Here- If it doesn't take you straight to the case fill out the "Captcha" and then then go to  Show E Filed Documents for Affidavits and Other Material.  If it asks you to search, you can search by defendant "Beville"

Hopefully, you have found this informative.  Please send any questions and forward to your friends and neighbors.  If you have questions about any of the above, please email me at Eric@ericzinger.com

Eric Zinger
www.ericzinger.com