Lyin’ Lee caught red-handed forging ballot signatures

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 7/15/2022

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ICYMI: LYIN’ LEE CAUGHT RED-HANDED FORGING BALLOT SIGNATURES

“Grassroots” Campaign Illegally Duplicated Petitions for Independence Line

NEW YORK, NY – “Lyin’ Lee” Zeldin’s campaign is in hot water again for submitting more than 11,000 fraudulent signatures to get on the Independent Party line. The failed attempt comes as Zeldin repeatedly endorsed the far-right conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was falsely decided.

Zeldin was denied the additional general election ballot line for the Independence Party after submitting more than 11,000 signatures that had been duplicated by photocopy.Ironically, Zeldin tweeted last year about the importance of ballot integrity, calling for“signature verification to be enacted by every state legislature in the nation.”

Here’s what people across New York are reading about Zeldin’s fraudulence: 

City and State: “Rep. Lee Zeldin made a national name for himself by fanning unfounded and false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. But in his race for governor, he may now be a perpetrator of fraud after the Libertarian Party claimed that his campaign photocopied petition signatures.”

Gotham Gazette: “‘My reaction to it was, “wow,”’ said Sarah Steiner, a veteran election lawyer who was not involved in the case. ‘Unless somebody accidentally mixed in pages that they had photocopied and then paginated them, in which case they would still be invalid, that’s a massive attempt at fraud,’ she told Gotham Gazette of the allegedly duplicated signatures.” 

Newsday: “‘Republicans talk a lot about election integrity, but the Zeldin campaign attempted to fly under the radar and submit over 11,000 fraudulent signatures in an attempt to get a third line on the ballot,’ Andrew Kolstee, the Libertarian secretary, said in a statement.”

Times Union: “In December 2020, Zeldin tweeted that ‘ballot integrity always matters regardless of the circumstances and regardless of whether the issue impacts one vote or thousands.’ He recommended a series of changes, including ‘signature verification with campaigns able to participate.’ His comments came as then-President Donald J. Trump was contesting the results of the election. Zeldin subsequently voted against certifying the results of the presidential election.” 

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