By: KEITH GRANT
School-district officials are imploring local nursing homes to take action to prevent fraud in their facilities during this year's school-board election, particularly in regard to absentee ballots.
Superintendent of Schools Ron Friedman said he will send a strongly worded letter to operators of Long Beach's dozen adult-care facilities to urge their cooperation in ensuring no tampering or other illegal activities take place in the handling of ballots in the May election.
"We need to have total integrity in the election process," Friedman said. "The grand jury, although they didn't indict, certainly found major concerns."
The superintendent's action comes a month after a special grand jury found evidence of fraud in last year's board election. No indictments were handed down, but the grand jury questioned the integrity of Long Beach's election process. It found serious fault in the method by which absentee ballots mailed to some residents of nursing homes were distributed, cast, collected and returned to the school district or election district for final counting.
The investigation resulted from allegations that the May 2000 election had been determined by tainted ballots from nursing homes. Trustee Norman Alpren was re-elected to the board after receiving 90 percent of the absentee vote from nursing homes, leap-frogging challengers Jannine Laskas-Gillespie and Lynn Gergen. While that election was the grand jury's primary focus, it also examined the September 2000 primary election.
The grand jury found that absentee ballots at some Long Beach nursing homes were not distributed to the addressee upon receipt, though the ballots are supposed to be delivered like regular mail. The grand jury determined that at the facilities in question, persons from outside the facility were permitted to enter, meet with residents one-on-one, distribute their absentee ballots, and advise them on how to cast their vote. The same persons would then collect the completed ballots and deliver them to the appropriate polling place, rather than having them mailed by the facility.
According to the report, some residents said they were not given the opportunity to choose not to vote, or to select a candidate of their own choosing. These residents, the report stated, "were told simply to sign their names to the envelope containing the ballot, or to check off the box on the ballot corresponding to a given candidate." The report alleges that some residents neither understood the nature of the election nor knew anything about the candidates.
Friedman does not want to see that happen again.
"We're going to be taking steps to advise the owners and operators of nursing homes of the need for the utmost integrity in how they handle the ballots that are mailed by the district to residents of those homes," Friedman said. Noting some of the serious findings of the grand jury, Friedman said of nursing-home operators, "As owners, they don't want to be looking down the other end of this barrel."
The superintendent said he would give give a detailed report at the April 24 Board of Education meeting on the steps the school district intends to take to ensure election fairness. Board president Steven Weitz seeks re-election in the May 15 vote.
Friedman said he would provide the owners of the nursing homes and adult- care centers with copies of the grand jury report, along with a letter advising them to take steps to prevent any such activities in the future.
Several managers of nursing homes declined to comment until, at least, they receive Friedman's letter.
The superintendent, meanwhile, said he will also contact state legislators to request a change in education law to allow school districts to play a greater role in monitoring the absentee-ballot process.
"At this point, we have no power under education law. Absent legislation allowing us to do so, we're not allowed to enter the nursing homes and control the process," Friedman said.
Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) thinks that allowing a school district greater control of the voting process could create a conflict of interest, or at least leave a perceived conflict.
"I don't like the idea of having the school district involved. I agree that it should be done in a better way," he said. "Everyone should have fair and equal access to be able to vote. But I don't think the school personnel should be involved. It appears then that there could be a conflict of interest."
Weisenberg said the Board of Elections ought to monitor the balloting.
"The Board of Elections has a responsibility to maintain the integrity of the elections," Weisenberg said. "That's what they've been trained to do."
The grand jury urged that until the Nassau County Board of Elections adopts State Election Law 8-407--which would require the board to provide absentee ballots to designated bipartisan inspectors to bring to the care facilities--then the school district should take whatever action it could to ensure a fair and legal election. Under 8-407, portable voting booths would be brought in, as well as absentee ballots, so that residents could choose how to vote. A resident who is unable to mark his or her ballot would be able to receive assistance either from both members of the board of inspectors, or from another person of the resident's choosing.
In a letter to Nassau County Elections commissioners Barbara Patton and John DeGrace, District Attorney Denis Dillon strongly endorsed the grand jury's recommendations, urging them to "take the initiative to protect the integrity of absentee ballots and the rights of voters, particularly vulnerable residents of adult homes and nursing homes."
Even without changes in the law, Friedman is confident the board will be able to maintain the integrity of this year's vote.
"I believe the steps we take will make a significant change," he said.
Weisenberg, meanwhile, has introduced a bill into the Assembly that he believes will eliminate the potential for absentee votes submitted from deceased people, another problem in past Long Beach elections. Assembly Bill 6072 will change election law so that the county coroner's office immediately notifies the Board of Elections of a death so that the person can be removed from voter registration lists.
