Long Island politicians are calling on state elections officials to investigate how a dozen families in Nassau and Suffolk received letters from two state senators thanking their dead relatives for registering to vote in the upcoming election.
Letters of gratitude were sent from the offices of Republican state Sens. Jack Martins and Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrickwho represent different parts of Nassau County. Relatives received these messages in the last week of August.
“I get mail for my mom, so it was no surprise to me for her to get a letter,” Erin Molyneux, who lives in Port Washington, told the Post. “But I was surprised that it was from our state senator, congratulating her on registering, and I thought, ‘That’s not right.'”
Making the situation even more confusing was that Molyneux called the state elections board and learned that his mother’s name was not on the voter list.
Molyneux said his mother, Sang Harrison, spent most of her life in Georgia and never had a real New York address. Harrison, who suffered from a terminal illness, was only in New York for the last 10 days of her life in January 2023.
“The real concern I had was, is she the victim of identity theft? I don't want her name and reputation to be associated with any election fraud scheme,” Molyneux said. “I don't want my mother's name associated with any story that she voted from the grave. Or that someone is voting in her name.”
In a letter to the state Inspector General and the Division of Elections Enforcement, Nassau County Legislature Minority Leader Delia DeRighi-Whitton (D., Port Washington) said the notes of congratulations had “caused considerable distress to the families of the deceased.”
Even more troubling, he added, is that many of the deceased individuals mentioned in these letters were never registered to vote in New York State, raising serious questions about the source of the data these senators are using.
“It appears to have been an inappropriate use of government resources to compile these flawed mailing lists, particularly right before a key presidential election.”
He speculated in his letters that Martins and Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick “may have violated several provisions of the
Ensuring compliance with New York State law and ethical standards.
Martins could not be reached for comment Saturday, but during a press conference Friday he said he received a list of new voters from the State Board of Elections.
However, the elections board said they did not receive Harrison's name from them because no person with that name is on the elections commission. Statewide voter database,
Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick also could not be reached for comment Saturday.
