Today, Thursday, July 25th, Julio Pabòn and a group of defrauded Democratic Party members denounced City Councilwoman Maria Del Carmen Arroyo for her campaign’s complete and utter disregard for the law by facilitating the forging the signatures of hundreds of enrolled Democratic voters in her Council district. City Council candidates need a mere 450 signatures of enrolled Democrats from their district to qualify for the Democratic ballot nominations.
The news conference took place in Hunts Point, The Bronx, in front of 1274 Lafayette Avenue, where according to Council Member Arroyo’s petitions, celebrities like Derek Jeter Jr., Joe Buck and Rocky Barnard reside.
Democratic city council candidate, Julio Pabon asked the Arroyo Campaign to come forward and explain to the democratic voters of their district, why their petitions are permeated with fraud.
“While the fraudulent signatures of Derek Jeter Jr., are grabbing headlines, the real story is that of the democratic voters of City-Council District 17, who have lost complete faith in our elected officials. They feel so betrayed that their signatures were forged by a sitting elected official. Dozens of forgery victims have already signed notarized affidavits proving that they never signed any petitions from Ms. Arroyo. Many offered to testify in court.”
Mr. Pabòn wants democratic leaders to stand up and look closely at this issue of defrauding democratic voters and subverting the primary election process through deception.
Maximino Rivera, the Democratic voter charging the Arroyo campaign with fraud stated, “The Arroyo camp submitted page after page of blatant forgery. Her petitions are permeated with fraud.”
Democratic officeholders such as Christine Quinn, Ruben Diaz Jr., and Scott Stringer, are also on CM Arroyo’s petitions.
Pabón attorney Donald Dunn said he “hopes that those officials are asking Ms. Arroyo to come forward and explain the blatant forgery on her petitions to all democratic voters.”
Volunteer staffers for the Friends of Julio Pabòn Campaign said they felt disheartened by what they saw; signature, after signature blatantly forged. The rampant fraud became instantly obvious to Team Pabón as they sat at Board of Elections computers comparing voter signatures with the signatures on Arroyo’s petitions.
“I guess I can believe Ms. Arroyo could not find 450 real voters to support 4 more years of the misfeasance and malfeasance that the Arroyo dynasty has wrought upon its constituents”, said Jocelyn Valenzuela, the volunteer coordinator for the Pabòn campaign.
Anthony Miranda, President of the National Latino Officers Association expressed his admiration for the Pabòn campaign’s efforts of actively engaging voters and, especially, Julio Pabón’s fortitude and integrity.
Miranda announced the association’s endorsement of Julio Pabòn for City Council, District 17 (Bronx).
Councilmember Maria Del Carmen Arroyo has yet to come forward about the fraud permeated in her petitions.
Team Pabón seeks to shed light on the injustice experienced by voters in a poor and underserved district.
CM Arroyo earlier told the NY Daily News that she had no knowledge of the fraudulent petitions submitted on her behalf.
Team Pabón challenge of the Arroyo nominating petitions reduced her to 426 valid signatures, thus knocking her from the September Primary ballot. The city Board of Election will make a determination and the state supreme court will probably uphold Arroyo’s disqualification based on the alleged permeation of petition fraud.
Stay tuned folks. This is the campaign battle to watch. Will election law Svengali Stanley Schlein and Bronx Democratic Party finally be bested by a small insurgency? ¿Quien sabe?
Time has arrived for electronic petitioning and stop this paper process.
Every day we sign electronic financial transactions.
An internet based petition process has three key benefits:
1)Easier for candidates to be on the ballot and lower barrier of entry to the political discussion
2) Zero cost. You copy and paste your assigned link, forward it to your neighbors and have them log their names into the system
3) Increase government transparency
This paper process has got to go.