XPost: alt.politics.elections, talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: drooler@gmail.com   
      
   The Brooklyn Democratic Party submitted paperwork with at least two forged   
   signatures to the city Board of Elections as part of a bid to knock fellow   
   Democrats off June primary ballots, a grassroots political organization   
   alleges.   
      
   On Thursday, Rep Your Block, a volunteer organization, lodged a complaint   
   with the board, citing sworn affidavits from two registered Democrats in   
   Brownsville and East New York who said the signatures on ballot challenges   
   to candidates filed in their names weren’t theirs.   
      
   The “filing of these objections with your agency amounts to the criminal   
   act of filing a false instrument,” the complaint to the BOE states. “These   
   objections and any resulting specifications should be dismissed by your   
   agency.”   
      
   Rep Your Block, which aims to get more residents to participate in the   
   borough’s Democratic party, also communicated to THE CITY concerns about   
   the validity of at least a half dozen other signatures submitted on formal   
   objections to candidates’ ballot petitions filed with the board.   
      
   They point to a similarity in the handwriting among the signatures,   
   obvious discrepancies between the submitted signatures and voter   
   signatures already on file at the Board of Election, and even misspellings   
   of some of the names.   
      
   “We just want to be a part of our own political party. It shouldn’t be   
   that hard. And to have to go to a criminal end to block us is just   
   shocking,” said Maggie Moore, campaign director for Rep Your Block. “It’s   
   really, really unfortunate and disappointing.”   
      
   The flagged challenges were among dozens linked to the Brooklyn Democratic   
   Party targeting the ballot petitions of nearly 200 candidates who are   
   seeking party positions.   
      
   Both opponents and allies of the party leadership described the wave of   
   objections to candidates, mostly for low-level party posts, as part of an   
   effort to consolidate power under county party chair Rodneyse Bichotte,   
   who is also a state Assembly member.   
      
   The organization’s attorney, Ali Najmi, said the alleged fraud constitutes   
   a crime and calls into question the validity of all the challenges   
   submitted by the Brooklyn Democratic Party — which he asked the Board of   
   Elections to toss.   
      
   “Here they’ve committed actual fraud on multiple ones,” said Najmi, an   
   election lawyer. “They should strike them all.”   
      
   The ballot challenges in question all listed Anthony Genovesi Jr., an   
   attorney who serves as law chair for the Brooklyn Democrats, as a “contact   
   person.”   
      
   Genovesi Jr., who is also a partner at Abrams Fensterman, a law firm with   
   close ties to Mayor Eric Adams and the Brooklyn Democratic Party, did not   
   respond to an email seeking comment. A call transferred via Genovesi’s   
   office directory was disconnected after a reporter for THE CITY identified   
   himself to the man who answered.   
      
   Adams’ chief of staff, Frank Carone, is also a former partner at Abrams   
   Fensterman and the former law chair of the Brooklyn Dems.   
      
   Bob Liff, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Democratic Party, said in a   
   statement on Friday after this story’s publication: “Claims that the Party   
   knowingly filed a false instrument are fallacious, and frankly libelous.   
   Any allegations of fraudulent activity should be investigated through the   
   proper legal channels.”   
      
   Michael J. Ryan, executive director of the city’s BOE, did not respond to   
   requests for comment.   
      
   ‘This Is Fraud’   
   John Booker is one of the two Brooklyn residents who swears his signature   
   was forged on ballot objection forms.   
      
   The 66-year-old makes a living selling hats, handmade bead strings and   
   other knickknacks outside the Broadway Junction train hub. After years of   
   pushing a cart with his merchandise, Booker injured a finger on his right   
   hand, making it difficult for him to write.   
      
   So when the street vendor saw his name written in elegant cursive on a   
   ballot objection form, he knew it was a fraud, he said.   
      
   “I couldn’t possibly sign this neatly,” Booker told THE CITY on a hot   
   afternoon standing next to his table. “My signature is more of a   
   scribble.”   
      
   Booker insisted that he did not and could not have accidentally signed the   
   form on April 6, the date that appears next to the signature. He said he   
   is always careful about what he signs, and would have no interest in a   
   blind effort to kick fellow residents off the ballot.   
      
   “Because I don’t know these people. I don’t know what they represent, what   
   their platform is,” he said. “So I wouldn’t, you know, I just would never   
   do this. April 6th? Wasn’t that like last week? No, no, believe me, this   
   is fraud.”   
      
   The other voter who signed an affidavit stating that the signature on the   
   petition challenge wasn’t his is an 85-year-old retired maintenance worker   
   who originally hails from Guyana, and who asked that his name not be   
   published.   
      
   He confirmed to THE CITY that an electronic copy of the signature shown to   
   him by a reporter wasn’t his.   
      
   Moore, of Rep Your Block, said she found something fishy among the   
   objections in the 55th Assembly district that includes Brownsville and   
   East New York because all six of the Rep Your Block-aided candidates’   
   petitions for county committee had been challenged.   
      
   That district has 208 county committee seats in all for the coming term.   
      
   Challenges of petitions for those posts are often difficult to secure   
   because the objector needs to be a registered Democrat who lives in the   
   same small election district — typically the size of a few blocks — as the   
   candidate.   
      
   Najmi said he commissioned a former NYPD member now working as a private   
   investigator to track down some of the alleged objectors. The investigator   
   found that two, including Booker, had registered their voting address at a   
   self-storage site near Broadway Junction.   
      
   Booker told THE CITY he uses the storage site as his mailing address.   
      
   Battle Over Control   
   The objection signature submitted in Booker’s name was one of nearly 70   
   residents’ signatures filed last week with the Board of Elections and   
   linked to Genovesi Jr., targeting nearly 200 Democratic candidates for   
   offices across the borough.   
      
   About half of those political hopefuls are running to join the ranks of   
   the roughly 4,000 Democratic county committee members, who serve for two-   
   year terms as party representatives.   
      
   While the positions are unpaid, county committee members serve critical   
   functions that shape the party agenda and influence which Democrats get   
   elected into state offices in Brooklyn.   
      
   They help pick nominees in special elections that take place following   
   sudden vacancies in the state legislature, often giving county-backed   
   candidates a leg up by putting their names on the party line in low-   
   turnout elections in a borough where Democratic voters dominate.   
      
   Historically, the Kings County Democratic Committee has been able to   
   maintain significant majority control of county committee members,   
      
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