{"id":3410,"date":"2025-07-31T10:19:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.nycnewsnetwork.com\/nycpolitics\/brooklyn-gop-primary-decided-by-16-votes-but-fraud-allegations-linger\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T10:19:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:19:02","slug":"brooklyn-gop-primary-decided-by-16-votes-but-fraud-allegations-linger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/nycpolitics\/brooklyn-gop-primary-decided-by-16-votes-but-fraud-allegations-linger\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn GOP Primary Decided by 16 Votes, But Fraud Allegations Linger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>New York City Board of Elections<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on Tuesday certified the results of the Republican primary for City Council District 47, even as a cloud of alleged voter fraud looms over the race and the agency itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>George Sarantopoulos<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> officially defeated <\/span><b>Brooklyn GOP chair Richie Barsamian<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by just 16 votes following a hand recount triggered by the razor-thin margin. He is now set to face <\/span><b>Democrat Kayla Santosuosso<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in November\u2019s general election for the seat currently held by term-limited <\/span><b>Council Member Justin Brannan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suspicious Ballots and Absentee Fraud Allegations<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just days before certification, the BOE revealed it had referred two alleged incidents of voter fraud to the Brooklyn District Attorney\u2019s Office. One case involved 22 suspicious ballots discovered July 22 in a bin at the BOE\u2019s Brooklyn warehouse. All ballots came from a single scanner in a single election district at the Amalgamated Warbasse Houses in Coney Island and had not been counted on Election Day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The BOE invalidated those ballots after an internal review failed to link them to actual voters. Separately, absentee ballots were discovered to have been cast in the names of deceased individuals and at least one living voter who did not vote.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because absentee ballots are separated from identifying envelopes before counting, the fraudulent votes were already included in the tally and could not be removed.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Calls for Accountability Within the BOE<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Election attorney <\/span><b>Aaron Foldenauer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who represents Sarantopoulos, said there\u2019s growing concern that BOE staff may have been involved. According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecity.nyc\/2025\/07\/30\/board-elections-dead-voters-gop-brooklyn-council\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">THE CITY<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, law enforcement has seized devices from several Brooklyn BOE workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThese [22 votes] were never counted,\u201d Foldenauer said. \u201cThey were not counted on election night, they were not counted in the various ranked-choice voting algorithms \u2026 therefore, it does appear that these ballots were stuffed in a ballot box late. It further appears that one or more Board of Elections employees may have been involved.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sarantopoulos, addressing the board Tuesday, praised workers who raised red flags and called for those responsible to be \u201cpunished to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Barsamian Camp Questions Ballot Invalidation Process<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Barsamian has not commented publicly since July 23 but previously emphasized his legal team\u2019s efforts to ensure every \u201clegal vote counts.\u201d His attorney, <\/span><b>John Ciampoli<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, criticized the BOE\u2019s process, claiming canvassers weren\u2019t allowed to inspect or contest the suspicious ballots.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both Ciampoli and Foldenauer said most of those ballots appeared to favor Barsamian, enough to potentially flip the result.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lawsuit Sarantopoulos filed earlier this month against Barsamian and the BOE is expected to be dropped now that the race is certified and a criminal investigation is underway.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe investigation, really, is about bringing any wrongdoers to justice,\u201d Foldenauer said. \u201cGiven the ways in which both internal actors at the Board of Elections and external actors can game the system, it\u2019s important that these fraud cases are thoroughly investigated by law enforcement and prosecuted.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York City Board of Elections on Tuesday certified the results of the Republican primary for City Council District 47, even as a cloud of alleged voter fraud looms [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-nyc-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - 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