Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy tampered with poll book, election official said

Outgoing Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy tampered with the village's poll book on Election Day by crossing off names, the Nassau County Board of Elections' chief clerk said, but Levy denied the charge.

Levy, 70, a Republican who has served as village mayor since 2011, said he was merely highlighting the names of deceased voters.

The board in February had invalidated Levy's entire slate over a lack of witness signatures on six of eight petition pages. Levy on Wednesday used a red marker to cross out several names in the poll book, which contains a list of registered voters, and wrote notes on the pages, said Donna Nogid, the board's chief clerk. The elections board then drove over a fresh poll book to Village Hall.

“He was writing in the book,” Nogid said in an interview on Wednesday. “They requested a new poll book be sent out to them, and we sent it out to them.”

When asked by Newsday if the mayor had tampered with the poll book, Nogid said it was "considered tampering."

Levy disputed the board’s account in an interview on Thursday. He said he was entitled to be at the polling location as a certified poll watcher and that he did not cross off any names. Levy said he used a red highlighter — not a marker — to draw attention to the names of several deceased village residents.

“I know in other elections dead people vote,” he said. "In my election, I want to make sure dead people don’t vote.”

Levy said he also noticed some people at the polling site whom he believed were not village residents. He told the poll workers to ask those individuals to produce proof of residence.

"I knew they didn't live in the village, because I know everyone who does," Levy said. "We have 300 families. I know each and every one by name, how many children they have. I know who moved in, who moved out. I've been to every wedding, bar mitzvah, bris." 

Nogid said it is not legal for poll workers or watchers to ask voters for identification in New York State.

“It was resolved very quickly when they could not produce proper IDs,” Levy said. “My objective was to prevent any election fraud in our village. It was very adversarial, even though I wasn’t running.”

Carmela Speciale, the village clerk-treasurer, said in an interview that she had called for a Nassau County police presence during the election given the contentious campaign. She said a couple of officers were “in and out” all day.

Speciale said Levy had used a highlighter on the poll book. 

The results of the mayor’s race between Robert Kraus, a trustee running on the Together for a Better Saddle Rock line, and Kambiz Akhavan, running on the Friendly Neighbors line, were not finalized until about 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Akhavan defeated Kraus, 417-170, Speciale said.

Trustee candidates Joshua Rabanipour and Kousha Askari, also running on the Friendly Neighbors line, received 395 and 393 votes, respectively, to defeat Martine Alter and Vivian Kollenscher, who ran on the Concerned Citizens of Saddle Rock Line. Both received 168 votes.

Hal Chadow, a trustee who was thrown off the ballot with Levy, ran a write-in campaign and defeated Sigalit Sanilevich for a trustee seat, 379-168. 

In February, Nogid said the board had invalidated Levy's slate over the signature omissions. Levy did not sign four of the pages on a designated line. Sari Levy, who listed the same address as the mayor, also did not sign. Neither did trustee Afshin Tavakoly, who was on the slate. The trio printed their names, but a signature is required for all witnesses.

Levy said it was Kraus' group that had "made sure that I wouldn't run."

"It blew up in their faces," he said. 

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.