A Manhasset man has alleged that the Nassau County Board of Elections and members of the local, town and county Republican committees tried to keep him from participating in recent party conventions by intentionally not counting the votes of people he claims voted for him.
Martin Dekom, president of the non-party sanctioned Manhasset Republican Club, sent a complaint to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Bureau on Oct. 1, saying votes from within a minority neighborhood in Manhasset were not properly counted in a Sept. 10 election that would have made him a member of the Nassau County Republican Committee representing the Election District 106 of Assembly District 16.
“Simply put, the bosses of the Republican party did not like the results of an election so they ignored it,” Dekom wrote in his complaint letter.
In the complaint, Dekom lists nine voters who live on High Street in Manhasset – including himself – whose votes he said were calculated at the time in determining him the winner.
But Dekom wrote that he was later told by party officials that his victory was not certified by the Board of Elections, even though he claims the Board of Elections does not certify individual races, but entire elections.
Instead, Dekom alleges, the Board of Elections and local Republican party leaders engaged in a scheme to suppress votes and keep him off the committee, because “As a member, I would have the right to inspect the books and records of the organization, which I believe would prove they have paid (sic) withdrawn large sums of money over a period of years without permission.”
Efforts to reach Louis Savinetti, the Nassau County Board of Elections’ Republican commissioner, and William Biamonte, the Democratic commissioner, were unavailing.
“I believe that the scheme to suppress the vote is based on the idea that the authorities will not give a damn if a handful of minority votes are suppressed,” Dekom wrote. “But the fact remains that these people cast lawful ballots in an official election which were not counted, and then were denied the representation they voted for. This voided their lawful participation in three committees and one election of a public official.”
In the complaint, Dekom alleges party leaders illegally disqualified him as a an elected committee member and excluded him from participating in convention events at the Manhasset and Town of North Hempstead level, and had Nassau County police remove him from convention sites.
Dekom wrote he was not invited to an impromptu meeting of the Manhasset Republican Committee on Sept. 16, during which, Dekom wrote, committee leader Donald O’Brien “reelect[ed] himself.”
At the meeting, Dekom was told by North Hempstead Republican Committee chairman Frank Moroney that he could not participate in the meeting, “and that even though I was elected, I was not ‘certified’ the winner,” according to the complaint. Dekom added that the Board of Elections canvasses results within nine days of the election for certification.
According to the complaint, Dekom later learned the Republican conventions for the North Hempstead and Nassau County Republican committees would be held early, on Sept. 19.
Dekom wrote that he notified a number of people that he planned on attending the conventions, but added he thought his presence might get him arrested.
Upon attending, Dekom was again told by Moroney and Board of Elections attorney John Ryan that the election had not been certified and he would not be allowed to participate in the convention, according to the complaint. Dekom wrote Moroney and Ryan then waved over two Nassau County police officers, who informed him he was trespassing and would have to leave.
“The fact that Moroney correctly forecast that I would not be certified by the time of the convention indicates that the Board of Elections was actively cooperating in the scheme to suppress the vote of Election District 106,” Dekom wrote in the complaint.
Moroney declined to comment on the matter, saying “I am aware of what [Dekom] has done, but my job is to get Republicans elected, not to get into some catfight with a self-promoter like Marty Dekom.”
Chris Munzing, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said the Public Integrity Bureau will review the complaint but added a review does not imply that an investigation will follow.
