Voter registration fraud in CD 29

Qns. Dem voters are real fishy
By DAVID SEIFMAN City Hall Bureau Chief, NY Post

Her husband died 10 years ago, so a Queens woman was startled to get a letter from the Board of Elections notifying her that he had changed his voter-registration form last month.

A Philadelphia businessman was equally perplexed when he received a letter saying his 92-year-old mother had filed a new voter-registration card in July that didn't match her previous form.

"She's legally blind and suffering from dementia," the son told The Post yesterday. "I told them the reason for this discrepancy is because the information is fraudulent."

Officials say those voter-registration forms were among 1,913 delivered to the Queens board between Aug. 3 and 17 by Lilianna Zulunova, campaign manager for Albert Cohen, one of six candidates running to succeed Councilwoman Melinda Katz (D-Queens) in today's Democratic primary election.

More than half the registrations -- 1,037 -- had missing information, so the board sent out letters to the registrants asking that they supply the data.

Ninety-two were returned as undeliverable. In at least three cases, the registrants turned out to be dead.

Board officials removed those and other suspect registrations from the voter rolls and alerted higher-ups at central headquarters, who say they will conduct a "review" after the November election.

Zulunova insisted that Cohen's campaign, which conducted the first exhaustive voter-registration drive in the Bukharan Jewish community, had nothing to do with any fake registrations.

"If they're dead, they're no good to me -- they can't vote," she declared.

Council District 29 debate video

From BoroPolitics:

The six Democrats running in a packed race for City Councilwoman Melinda Katz’s (D-Forest Hills) seat called for better health care and more schools in the district at a TimesLedger Newspapers debate last week during which the candidates also tackled the Cord Meyer rezoning, ethnic tensions and term limits in the run-up to the Sept. 15 primary.

District 29 candidates Heidi Harrison Chain, Albert Cohen, Michael Cohen, Mel Gagarin, Karen Koslowitz and Lynn Schulman gathered at the Flushing Library Friday for the one-hour debate held by Community Newspaper Group, the TimesLedger’s parent, which was mostly cordial and during which the candidates frequently agreed with one another.

For more coverage of Queens politics, visit the Queens Campaigner.

Albert Cohen's Flag Pin Flap

"Add attorney Albert Cohen to the crowded field of candidates running to replace Melinda Katz in the19th District. The candidacy is a first for the local Bukharian Jewish community.

Like any patriot, Cohen is wearing a US flag pin on his suit. Unfortunately, when he posed for a Bukharian community magazine, something went wrong with the flag. You take a look.

In the second photo, Cohen stands with his rabbi, Emanuel Shimonov, wearing the flag in its correct position.

In my opinion, it's better to not wear a flag pin than to wear it wrong.

If the Crowley & Reich Clubhouse try to knock Cohen off the ballot, the Bukharian community will not go down quietly. At the same time, if more candidates try to run for the same seat, Koslowitz will an easy time returning to power, because of a divided field of newcomers."

-local resident.