NYC Elections Board Official in Brooklyn Removed Amid Investigation

New York City Board of Elections (NYCBOE) official in Brooklyn was suspended on Thursday as City and State officials investigate whether tens of thousands of Democratic voters were improperly removed from voter rolls ahead of the New York Presidential Primary on Tuesday, April 19th.

Diane Haslett-Rudiano, the Board’s Chief clerk in Brooklyn, has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation into the handling of voter rolls, the Board said in a statement yesterday.

The massive purge of over 100,000 Brooklyn voters from the rolls, which caused huge problems at polling sites, was the result of an epic screw-up by a long-time official expected to be forced out over the debacle, sources said. She’s in the process of being forced out over the voter roll mishaps, perhaps as early as the Board’s next Commissioner meeting next Tuesday, sources said.

The problems began when she was trying to clean up the voting books, which must be periodically purged to eliminate people who died, moved, or has not voted in four years. Sources said she skipped one of the steps that was built in to stop the system from purging eligible voters, which caused a chain reaction that led to people being improperly removed.

Brooklyn lost 102,717, or 8%,of its active voters from Nov. 1, 2015, through April 1, 2016, according to State stats. The high number of dropped voters, combined with other issues like long lines, late starts, and inadequate equipment, led to both the City Controller and the State Attorney General to launch investigations into the widespread irregularities.

“The administration of the voter rolls in Brooklyn is of major concern to our office and is a key focus of our investigation,” State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said, whose office is also looking at other parts of the State that had voting problems. His office received over 1,000 complaints on Election day about voting problems.

The NYCBOE, in a statement, said it will “fully cooperate with the investigations currently being conducted by the Office of the New York State Attorney General and The Office of the New York City Comptroller.”

Haslett-Rudiano, who has worked at NYCBOE since 1999 and made $125,758 last year.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker