100 Smithtown voters get letters about incorrect ballots

The Suffolk County Board of Elections sent a letter Thursday to 100 Smithtown voters in the 1st Congressional District warning that their absentee ballots might have the wrong congressional race.

Twelve voters in the heavily Republican area have told the board of elections that they received incorrect absentee ballots listing Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) and opponent Dan DeBono, instead of Rep. Lee Zeldin and Democratic challenger Perry Gershon.

The letter asks voters to check their original ballot. If it's incorrect, voters could complete an enclosed correct ballot and return it to the board. If they had already returned their ballot and weren't sure if the original was incorrect, they were instructed to complete and return that one as well, and the new one would be counted instead of the old one.

"We apologize for any confusion this may have caused," said the letter, signed by Republican Elections Commissioner Nicholas LaLota and Democratic Commissioner Anita Katz.

Zeldin has called for an investigation into the errors, labeling it Republican voter suppression because it occurred in a heavily GOP area.

The letter did not specify what caused the mistake. But a board of elections source said all the incorrect ballots had been listed in the area overlapping the 2nd Senate District and 8th Assembly District and printed on Oct. 13. The board had spoken to 119 voters this week to find the 12 with erroneous ballots. 

Ballots weren't finalized until late this year because of a challenge in the Surrogate's Court race, creating a crunch at the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

That caused the Suffolk Board of Elections to briefly suspend its practice, in which the board allowed voters to request and cast absentee ballots in person at the Yaphank headquarters.

On Thursday, the New York State attorney general's office wrote a letter to LaLota and Katz about the policy. The office "is concerned that the Board's actions, as recently reported, may have violated New York Election Law" that provides protections to voters.

The letter says that it is encouraged that the policy has been reinstated, and it asks them to confirm that the office "has ceased any practice of denying absentee ballots to eligible voters seeking to vote by absentee ballot by coming in person to the Board's offices." It also asks the board to confirm "that it has taken measures to ensure that its actions are in full compliance with Election Law and that it has the requisite policies and procedures in place to properly process absentee ballots in accordance with the law."

By David M. Schwartz

dschwar1@newsday.comschwartznewsNY

David Schwartz covers environmental issues. A native Long Islander, he's worked at Newsday since 2013.