FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8/15/2022
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ICYMI: BOMBSHELL REPORT REVEALS FORGED ZELDIN SIGNATURES ASSEMBLED AT NY GOP HQ

Xerox Zeldin Needs to Come Clean on Why His Campaign Submitted More Than 11,000 Fraudulent Petition Signatures 

Reminder: Zeldin Previously Peddled Far-Right 2020 Election Conspiracy Theories, Voted Against Certifying Election Results 

NEW YORK, NY – A scathing new report from the Times Union this morning uncovered new developments in the Xerox Zeldin fraudulent petition signature scandal. 

According to the Times Union, “State Republican Party headquarters in Albany served as a final hub of a dubious petitioning effort… Of 52,000 photocopied signatures submitted, more than 11,000 were determined by the Board of Elections to be xeroxed copies…” wrote the Times Union. 

The bombshell news comes as Zeldin’s campaign is facing a possible criminal investigation for submitting more than 11,000fraudulent ballot signatures to get on a third-party line. Zellnor Myrie, who is also Chair of the New York State Senate Elections Committee, recently filed a complaint with the Albany County District Attorney’s office, which is actively reviewing the complaint. 

“Falsely claiming election fraud is dangerous to our democracy. Actually, committing felony election fraud is dangerous to our democracy. Lee Zeldin is two for two,” said Zellnor Myrie, who is also chair of the New York State Senate Elections Committee. “Given Lee Zeldin’s vote to overturn the 2020 election, involvement with far-right extremist groups, and loyalty to Donald Trump, if Zeldin is dangerous enough to even play politics even with our democratic institutions, imagine the damage he’d pose to New York as Governor. New Yorkers deserve answers from Zeldin.” 

The alleged fraud seems to be picking up steam in the media, including the Post-Journal: “Now, it appears, the Zeldin campaign is tarnishing its image by allegedly photocopying some 11,000 voter signatures in an attempt to revitalize the defunct Independence Party line on the ballot […] Something illegal was done somewhere, then. And before voters give their support to Zeldin, his campaign needs to come clean.” 

“Not only did the Zeldin campaign submit more than 11,000 fraudulent petition signatures, but they even assembled them at the New York Republican headquarters,” said New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay S. Jacobs. “Since Zeldin has pushed the dangerous, far-right conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate, he must answer for why his campaign submitted thousands of fraudulent petition signatures.” 

Previously, Zeldin peddled far-right conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was falsely decided and voted against certifying the results. Ironically, Zeldin may now face a probe into whether his campaign committed actual election fraud, highlighting the hypocrisy of his vote to overturn the 2020 election. Read the key excerpts from the Times Union news story below: 

Times Union: Suspect petitions were assembled at NY Republican headquarters
By: Chris Bragg, 8/15/22 

State Republican Party headquarters in Albany served as a final hub of a dubious petitioning effort that’s since sparked controversy and a Democrat-led call for a criminal investigation. 

The petitioning centered on statewide Republican candidates seeking to run on an additional, key ballot line in the November election by reviving the moribund state Independence Party. […]

Of 52,000 photocopied signatures submitted, more than 11,000 were determined by the Board of Elections to be xeroxed copies of other, original signatures within those same records. The copied pages were interspersed in a manner leading some election experts to conclude their inclusion may have been intentional, possibly to inflate the number of signatures to surpass the daunting new threshold of 45,000 valid signatures for upstart state parties to gain ballot access. […]

[State Republican Party Spokesperson Jessica] Proud confirmed signatures were bound into volumes at Republican headquarters in Albany … Proud did not answer a question about which specific people were involved in binding the petitions at GOP headquarters. […]

Democratic state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, chair of the Senate’s Elections Committee, recently wrote a letter asking Albany County District Attorney David Soares to investigate the Independence Party petitioning effort. […]

“It is clear the Zeldin campaign perpetrated a fraud,” Myrie alleged. “Pages of valid signatures were photocopied. Thereafter, the original sheets were paginated, as were the photocopied pages. These sheets were assigned different page numbers in order to create the appearance that the pages contained separate, valid signatures […]

Hochul’s campaign has contrasted the tainted petitioning with Zeldin’s votes in the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 6, 2021, objecting to the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Zeldin, a congressman from Long Island, took those votes amid unproven allegations from Republicans that widespread voter fraud had allowed Joe Biden to defeat Donald J. Trump.

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