Families on Long Island are confused and angry after receiving letters saying their relative has registered to vote. The problem? All those supposed new voters are dead.
Erin Molyneux said he got one of the letters at his home in Port Washington in August. He was surprised and disturbed at the same time, because it congratulated his mother for registering to vote in New York's 7th District.
"Normally that would be wonderful, but in this case, it was very disturbing to me because my mother never lived in New York and she died about 20 months ago," Molyneux said at a press conference Friday.
His mother, Sang Harrison, didn't live in New York and never attempted to register to vote in the state. She was only in New York for the last 10 days of her life before she died of cancer, Molyneux said.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
"It baffles me how she could end up on any list as a registered voter given that she never resided here," he said.
Harrison is not registered to vote in New York, according to James Scheuerman, the Democratic Commissioner of the Nassau County Board of Elections. He said he has heard from a dozen families who have received similar letters for deceased relatives.
"In 2024, these things are not done in a vacuum. If a voter gets misinformation about a deceased relative, that makes its way online, which gets to tens of thousands of voters and becomes a narrative of how elections are run in Nassau County," said Scheuerman.
U.S. & World
The letter was mailed from the office of Republican State Sen. Jack Martins, who attended Friday's press conference held by Nassau County Democrats.
"The only list we use are the ones that are provided officially from the state board of elections," Martins said.
Martins said he got Harrison's name from a state Board of Elections list that is regularly updated, but Democrats dispute that claim. They said that none of the deceased people who received the letters are registered to vote.
"The deceased that are receiving the correspondence, many of them never lived in Nassau County and some of them were not registered in New York at all," said Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton.
Martins stood by the mailing list, saying it came from the state's BOE. But both parties are now demanding a full investigation.
"My heart goes out to the people who receive these letters. It should not happen to anyone, but if there is blame anywhere, it’s squarely on the Board of Elections," said Martins.
In a statement, the Board of Elections said it was made aware of the situation earlier on Friday. A spokesperson said that Harrison's name did not come from the BOE, because no person with that name exists in NYSVoter, the statewide voter database.
"The State Board of Elections, as well as the County Boards across New York, work diligently year-round to ensure voter lists are up-to-date and accurate," the statement read.
