New York AG Sends 'Cease And Desist' Letter To Voter Vigilantes

NEW YORK — The New York Attorney General's Office has sent a cease-and-desist order to a group of citizen vote vigilantes.

The group New York Citizens Audit is accused of approaching voters at their homes over the summer while claiming to be state election officials and falsely accusing them of fraud.

The state Board of Elections sent a media alert Aug. 30 saying they had received reports of people "confronting voters regarding their registration status, and erroneously accusing voters of committing a crime because of how they appear in the state voter database."

Residents were contacted in Albany, Chautauqua, Jefferson, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Putnam, Saratoga, Schenectady, Steuben, Suffolk, Warren, and Washington counties, spokesperson Kathleen McGrath told Patch.

On Sept. 6, the Suffolk County Board of Elections issued a statement, which said in part:

The Suffolk Board is aware of one incident in Suffolk County in which individuals posing as Board of Elections staff sought to verify a voter’s identity and requested to see the voter’s driver’s license which was smartly declined.
The Suffolk County Board of Elections staff is not visiting voters’ homes to verify their registration and is not going door to door to request proof of identification. Should anyone appear at a residence and claim that they are a Suffolk County Board of Elections’ employee or official, please request identification and then notify the Suffolk County Board of Elections at 631-852-4500 immediately. If you obtain a photograph or video of the individual through security devices, please forward such photograph or video to the Board for forwarding to appropriate law enforcement. Do not provide any personal information.

Putnam County Board of Elections Commissioner Cathy Croft told Patch that four residents had called the BOE after being approached. They called because they had become concerned about the status of their voter registration, she said.

Pointing out that criminal impersonation is a class A misdemeanor in New York, the State Board of Elections said in August it was communicating with law enforcement.

While the BOE did not name any suspected perpetrators, New York Citizens Audit issued a statement Aug. 31 saying the "precipitous and unfounded" media alert could discourage "legal investigations of election procedures."

At the time, its Executive Director, Marly Hornik, told the USA Today network that her group had started "doing field work after state officials failed to act on its allegations about duplicate registrations and more" and insisted her "researchers" were using "lawful methods," the Times Herald-Record reported.

On Sept. 14, Hornik issued a second response, saying that the BOE had filed complaints with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security and adding, "Hunkering down and attacking the messenger is not the right attitude."

Now the AG's letter orders the group to immediately stop any voter intimidation efforts and turn over records on its training of and communications with its door-to-door canvassers.

"These allegations, if true, could constitute unlawful voter deception under New York state law and unlawful voter intimidation under both state and federal law," reads the letter, which was obtained by the Associated Press.

However, in a statement emailed to the AP Thursday, Hornik said: "New York Citizens Audit is not engaged in any canvassing, and we have not received this letter as of yet."

The group's voter fraud allegations were detailed and debunked in a March article on syracuse.com, after which the paper's editorial board weighed in with an opinion piece: "NY election ‘citizen auditors’ are playing a dangerous game."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: NY Election Officials Warn About Voter Roll Vigilantes