New Hempstead school board vote to be held amid election fraud allegations

Hempstead voters will return to the polls Monday to again pick a candidate to fill a seat on the school board after the May election results were annulled amid allegations of election fraud.

The revote will take place from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School. The open seat is for a three-year term. On the ballot will be the same four candidates as in May: Victor Pratt, who has sought to be reelected to the seat he vacated June 30, and challengers Gwendolyn Jackson, Caprice Rines and Eugenia Girtman. 

State Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa in June ordered the second vote after the Hempstead school board appealed the results of the trustee election. The board did so following an internal investigation that concluded the district clerk in charge of the election worked to help Pratt, her favored candidate, win his reelection bid.

The clerk, April Keys, has denied the allegations through her attorney. She has been placed on paid leave and the district has appointed an acting district clerk. Keys no longer receives the clerk stipend but retains her confidential secretary position, according to Ron Edelson, of ZE Creative Communications, the school district’s public relations firm. 

The district has also referred its findings to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, which has opened an investigation. A spokesperson for the office said this week that investigation was ongoing.

Pratt has questioned the board's investigation. The other three candidates, meanwhile, have expressed frustration over having to campaign again and were concerned about voter turnout given the revote is scheduled for a Monday instead of a Tuesday like past elections.

They also worried voters might be too dismayed to show up a second time.

“I know that people are disgusted,” said Jackson, the second-highest vote-getter in the May election. “Some people are like: ‘No, I'm not doing this. Why should I have to do it again?’ ”

Absentee ballot controversy

Initial results of the May 19 election showed Pratt had won, but the board declined to certify the result due to what school attorneys said was an unusual disparity in absentee ballots.

Pratt received the third-highest number of votes cast via machine ballots but he pulled ahead after winning significantly more absentee ballots than his opponents.

Austin Graff, a school district attorney tasked to investigate the matter, uncovered surveillance footage of Pratt allegedly leaving Keys’ office the evening before the election carrying what Graff estimated to be between 75 and 125 absentee ballots.

Graff also said Keys could not explain how ripped-up cast ballots wound up in a garbage bag. The ballots included votes in support of both Pratt and Jackson, according to Graff’s report submitted to the school board.

Graff, in his report, said Pratt responded to questions during an interview for the investigation “like he had amnesia” and “needed help from Keys regarding how to respond to questions about the ballots."

Keys’ attorney, Jerald Carter, has questioned why votes for Pratt would be torn if his client, as alleged, favored him to win the election.

Pratt, 54, declined to comment on the revote this week, deferring questions to his attorney, Joseph Lo Piccolo.

In previous public comments, Pratt has said he believed the other board members sought to oust him and called the internal investigation a “political witch hunt” that wasted taxpayer dollars and distracted the district from educating its children. 

“You don't get to yell 'do over' because the results did not go your way,” he said during a May 27 board meeting. “That undermines democracy and public trust.” 

In an interview Wednesday, Lo Piccolo questioned the methods used in the internal investigation and said he has “not seen the full, quote unquote, evidence that is alleged to support the investigation.”

He added: “Mr. Pratt did not do anything wrong during the campaign or the voting process.”

Candidate concerns

Jackson, 73, said she felt sorry for the voters “whose voices were thrown in a trash can.” In recent weeks, Jackson said she has campaigned at community events and knocked on doors.

She said she’s concerned about voter turnout Monday but remains optimistic: “I think that people who are going to be here will come out and vote because people don't like the fact that their voice is not being heard.” 

Rines, 58, said she didn’t believe the revote process was fair as it did not grant enough time for her to raise funds and get her name out to the public. She said she couldn’t afford to buy more flyers but has used social media to promote her platform.

“I'm upset that someone will hijack our voting system for their own personal gain,” she said. “I love my community. That's why it enrages me when people do the things that they do. … We have people who have needs. Why would we hurt people for our own gain?”

Girtman, 61, said she has heard different attitudes from residents toward the revote.

“Some of them are a little leery,” she said. “They don't want to be involved. They don't want to be bothered anymore. But I guess for the most part, the ones that will vote will, and the ones that won't, won’t.”

The process, she said, has been messy.

“It really is awful,” she said. “But, I mean, it is what it is.”