Manhasset man charged with voting twice in 2016 election

A Manhasset man is being charged with voting twice in the 2016 presidential election.

Spiro Colaitis, 57, voted at the polls in Nassau County on Election Day, and by mail-in ballot in Escambia County in Florida, according to the Office of the State Attorney in Pensacola, Florida.

Colaitis turned himself in to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and was charged with casting more than one ballot in an election, a felony, according to the state attorney’s office.

He was released the same day on $2,500 bail, online arrest records show.

Colaitis, who is the assistant superintendent for district operations for the Malverne school district, did not respond to a request for comment.

The school district declined to comment, calling it “a personal matter and currently under law enforcement review.”

An investigation by the state attorney’s office found that Colaitis has not lived in Pensacola since 2005 and sold his property there before 2010, according to an affidavit filed with an arrest report.

Still, Colaitis “requested, voted and returned an Escambia County vote-by-mail ballot that was processed on Oct. 25, 2016,” the affidavit says.

The Escambia County Supervisor of Elections contacted the Nassau County Board of Elections a few months ago, requesting Colaitis’ voting information. They were not told that he was being investigated for voting twice, said Bonnie Garone, an attorney for the board of elections’ Democratic commissioner.

The Nassau district attorney’s office will look into the case, said spokeswoman Miriam Sholder.

“This is a Florida prosecution and as such we are unfamiliar with the charges,” Sholder said. “We will speak to Florida authorities about the matter.”

An investigator for the Florida state attorney’s office said in the affidavit that he contacted Colaitis in February and emailed him a copy of the mail-in ballot, but Colaitis never responded to a request for him to confirm the signature on the ballot was his.

Colaitis also served as commander of the New York Naval Militia. He has taken a leave of absence from the role effective Tuesday, a spokesman for the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs said.

He is scheduled to be arraigned April 26, the Florida State Attorney’s Office said.