Signatures qualify Cross, Touré as candidates for Hempstead board seat

Betty Cross and Maribel Touré will appear on the Oct. 28 ballot for the Hempstead school board special election now that each has been found to have enough voters' signatures to qualify, an attorney for the district said Tuesday.

A representative from the state attorney general's Civil Rights Bureau, which is monitoring the race, vetted each woman's petition, a spokeswoman said. About six people from that office are expected to be present in the district on election day.

Cross and Touré filed the required petitions by Monday's deadline. Each needed 40 signatures from registered voters in the district.

Touré, whose allegations of fraud in the May 20 election prompted state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. to remove Cross from the board seat and order the new vote, said she's hopeful residents will come out and make their choice known. "It makes sense to vote," she said. "It makes a difference."

If elected, Touré said, she hopes to improve graduation rates -- Hempstead's rank among the lowest on Long Island -- and to increase students' chances of moving on to college.

Cornell Bozier, Cross' campaign manager, said she is eager to rejoin the school board. She served as a trustee for much of the past 30 years, often as board president.

"She is taking this more seriously than she has taken any election, due to the fact that the state education commissioner removed her," Bozier said.

The May election is being investigated by the Nassau County district attorney's office, which has issued three subpoenas to the school district, a source close to the case has said.

Cross has denied wrongdoing.