Marc mad over elect board vid’s Cuo ‘vote’
A city Board of Elections video instructing voters how to cast a ballot favors Democrat Gov. Cuomo, his Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro, said Sunday.
The 55-second online video features images of the two-page ballot, with a darkened oval over Cuomo’s name in the first position near the upper-left-hand corner of the first page.
Molinaro accused city election officials of trying to sabotage his underdog campaign against the two-term incumbent.
“New York state is rigged to preserve the ‘status Cuomo,’ and here we see another not-so-cute example of it,” Molinaro said.
“This governor and his cohorts will stop at nothing to give him every possible advantage, regardless of what it costs taxpayers.”
In addition to showing a vote for Cuomo, the ballot in the video — posted online Saturday — also carries marks for multiple candidates in some races, meaning it would be thrown out for illegal “overvoting” if actually submitted.
In addition to Cuomo, the line for governor shows a vote for Libertarian Party candidate Larry Sharpe, while the line for comptroller shows a vote for incumbent Democrat Thomas DiNapoli and one for Republican challenger Jonathan Trichter.
A whistleblower noticed the snafus and alerted Molinaro via his “Cuomo Leaks” Web site for anti-corruption tipsters, Molinaro’s campaign said.
“The video clearly shows the ballot marked with a vote for Andrew Cuomo. It then shows a pencil [marking] a vote for a Democratic judge,” the whistleblower wrote in a message to Molinaro.
“This hardly seems impartial from the agency charged with administering the elections impartially.”
The video, titled “Mark It, Tear It, Scan It,” was posted on YouTube and the board’s Web site.
There are versions with narrations in English, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Chinese and Bengali.
As of Sunday evening, the English version had racked up 795 views and six “likes.”
Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Collins said, “We know the Molinaro campaign is desperate, but any credible candidate for governor should know that the city Board of Elections is an independent board with absolutely no connection to the governor or his campaign.”
A spokeswoman for the board declined to comment.