De Blasio demands resignation of elections official who blasted ID program | NYPost.com

Mayor de Blasio on Friday demanded the resignation of a Board of Elections commissioner who said in an undercover video that the city’s municipal ID program is contributing to voter fraud at the polls.

“That’s crazy and what he said was entirely inappropriate and unfair and absolutely the reverse of what someone should be saying on the Board of Elections. He should really step down,” de Blasio said Friday on WNYC, referring to Manhattan Democratic Commissioner Alan Schulkin.

“He obviously does not have the world view and ethics to do that . . . if he is going to talk about, first of all, falsehoods, and second of all, ways that would ultimately exclude people.”

The mayor noted that the ID program was developed with the NYPD to protect against identify fraud.

“It is being used it in other cities and countries. There has been no concerns to speak of about fraud. Again, this is just urban legend that there is a [voter] fraud problem. There isn’t. There’s no proof of it whatsoever.”

Schulkin, captured in a secretly-recorded interview by a muckraker for the conservative group Project Veritas, claimed the municipal ID program was contributing to “all kinds of fraud” — including at the polls.

“He gave out ID cards, de Blasio. That’s in lieu of a driver’s license, but you can use it for anything,” Schulkin said on the recording.

“But they didn’t vet people to see who they really are. Anybody can go in there and say, ‘I am Joe Smith, I want an ID card,’ ” he said on the video.

“It’s absurd. There is a lot of fraud. Not just voter fraud, all kinds of fraud . . . This is why I get more conservative as I get older.”

Schulkin also told the undercover that voters in minority were bused from “poll site to poll site.”

In a subsequent interview, Schulkin defended his support for a voter ID law to deter fraud, but backed off his criticism of the municipal ID program.

At a Board of Elections meeting on Tuesday, Schulkin claimed his remarks were taken out of context and denied that he’s a racist.

Michael Benjamin
Twitter: @SquarePegDem