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At
least 153 residents of New York City registered as voters at their
upstate homes and voted in last March’s 20th
Congressional District special election – and 76 percent of those
voters are registered Democrats.
That’s according to election records recently obtained by the
Associated Press. Approximately 250 more voters are registered both
in the city and elsewhere – but those individuals didn’t cast a vote
in the election between Congressman Scott Murphy and Assemblyman Jim
Tedisco.
Mary
Woods is a real estate manager in Greenwich Village. She’s a
Democrat in Manhattan, where there are six Democratic votes for
every Republican one.
Woods
says she switched her registration to a region where Republicans
have a narrow enrollment advantage – that’s Pine Plains, about 90
miles north of New York City.
“There’s a gazillion people who vote
like me in New York City,” Woods said. “There’s not so many up
here.”
And it may be folks just like Woods
that in a district traditionally dominated by Republicans tipped the
special election in Democrat Scott Murphy’s favor.
Joseph Mondello – who announced Monday that he won’t seek another
term as chairman of the state Republican Committee – accused second
home owners of hijacking votes.
“Quite frankly, they’re stealing my vote,” he said.
According to the law, it’s illegal to be registered in two separate
places at the same time. But the state Board of Elections says it
happens often because New York City boroughs are behind on
eliminating voters from the city database. And those votes, legal or
otherwise, don’t get thrown out.
The
Board of Elections also says voters are legally required to register
from their primary residence. But Board of Elections spokesman Bob
Brehm says that’s not clearly defined under state law.
“Certainly if you voted in the morning
in Manhattan and then drove to your summer home and voted there the
same day that would be absolutely illegal,” he said Bob Brehm. “If
you’re at your summer home and there’s a local election – that’s
where the debate over registration is.”
Barry Burden is a professor of
political science at the University of Wisconsin. He says New York
is ripe for what he called “strategic voting” due to the partisan
split between upstate and downstate voters.
“Any election system is going to
encourage that kind of thing if voters learn to maximize their
leverage,” Burden said. “I’m not surprised.”
Murphy won March’s election by just
726 votes out of more than 160,000 cast in the 20th district, which
has 70,000 more enrolled Republicans than Democrats.
State Democratic Committee Executive
Chair June O’Neill says the influence of second home owners played a
definite role in the race.
“In that instance, it obviously
accrued to our advantage,” she said. “But people have the legal
right to choose where they want to cast that vote.”
Mondello noted that many political
races in upstate New York come down to a handful of votes.
“Some of those races go by 10 votes,”
he said. “You get 10 or 15 people to do that and you can change the
outcome of an election.”
-Chris
Morris with Associated Press reports, 8-25-09
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