Alleged Espaillat Voter Suppression Probe Demanded By Uptown Pols

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY - Nearly two dozen politicos representing Washington Heights signed a complaint to county democratic committee officials Tuesday calling for an investigation into alleged voter suppression from Rep. Adriano Espaillat and three other district leaders, according to a letter shared with Patch.

The petition addressed to the New York County Democratic Committee's Executive Committee — signed by 23 New York County Democratic Committee members from the 72nd Assembly District representing the northern tip of Manhattan — alleges district leaders Espaillat, Mariel Dela Cruz, Manny De Los Santos and Maria Morillo suppressed votes and rigged the Chair of County Committee election in favor of Assemblyman Harvey Epstein earlier this month.

The letter's signatories included Miosotis Alba, Patricia Anderton, Vivian Anapol, Quann Boyd, Francesca Castellanos, Nicole Castronova, Jonathan Early, Joanna Katz, Christopher Hazeltine, John Higgins, Andrea Kornbluth, Bruce G. McKeown, Yodalis Moran, Carole Mulligan, Carolyn Murtaugh, Sky Pape, Edwin Roasrio, Gabrielle Shatan, Paul Stewart-Stand, Gail Sullivan, Edgar Tavarez, Amy Traub and Marshall Vanderpool.

According to the letter, the four district leaders attempted to report that all 72nd Assembly District members voted for Epstein, despite 23 members’ vote for incumbent Chair Nico Minerva.

“Had the full County Committee not forced an embarrassing poll of the County Committee delegation from the 72nd that exposed the attempted vote-rigging, Harvey Epstein would have won his race for Chair,” the letter signers said in a statement.

Epstein lost the bid for Chair by just eight votes during the October election. The original count was amended in the end, according to The Village Sun, necessitating a voice vote from 72nd Assembly District members.

"It is clear that had the attempted erasure of our votes succeeded, the election would have wrongfully been tilted towards the preferred candidate of the 72nd Assembly District Leaders," the letter reads.

"This would have been an act of theft against the majority of the county committee members who voted for the Minerva, undermining the values of fairness and democracy that we hope all members of the county expect from this process."

"This is a frivolous complaint meant to distract from county’s backroom self-dealing by blocking proposals that would bring transparency and fairness to the committee," a spokesperson for the coalition told Patch in an email Wednesday afternoon.

"The three proposals, offered by a coalition of downtown and uptown members, would bring gender parity to party leadership, require translation services for non-English speaking members and ban the county leader from being a lobbyist or being employed by a lobbying firm."

You can read the letter below: