{"id":287629,"date":"2021-06-30T18:18:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T15:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/elections-board-handed-to-unqualified-no-2-before-mayoral-primary-source\/"},"modified":"2021-06-30T18:18:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T15:18:51","slug":"elections-board-handed-to-unqualified-no-2-before-mayoral-primary-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/elections-board-handed-to-unqualified-no-2-before-mayoral-primary-source\/","title":{"rendered":"#Elections Board handed to ‘unqualified’ No. 2 before mayoral primary: source"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Elections Board handed to ‘unqualified’ No. 2 before mayoral primary: source<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The head of the city Board of Elections that is now embroiled in its worst controversy for botching New York\u2019s mayoral primary count has been on medical leave for months, leaving the already struggling agency in the hands of his number two, The Post has learned. <\/p>\n

Board of Elections executive director Mike Ryan\u2019s deputy, Dawn Sandow, is a Bronx Republican political app<\/a>ointee, whom a fellow GOP official described as unqualified to run the board for the city\u2019s first mayoral ranked-choice election. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a disaster,\u201d said the source. \u201cShe isn\u2019t very qualified to run a large agency.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sandow<\/a>, who for years worked for former state Sen. Guy Velella, for a long time has had a \u201cstrong hand\u201d at the embattled, patronage-laden agency, a City Council source told The Post.\u00a0Velella in 2002 was indicted on 25 bribery and conspiracy counts.<\/p>\n

Ryan didn\u2019t appear at the BOE\u2019s council budget hearing in May, when Sandow took his place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A
A source told The Post that Mike Ryan\u2019s (right) deputy, Dawn Sandow (left), \u201cisn\u2019t very qualified to run a large agency.\u201d<\/figcaption>
Natan Dvir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ryan on Tuesday told The Post from his Staten Island home that he has stage 4 cancer. He has been on leave since March, as Sandow has taken the helm of the agency, the BOE confirmed. <\/p>\n

Sandow was not at a Bronx address listed in public records, when The Post tried to reach her for comment, and didn\u2019t answer the door of an address listed in Rockland County, though a neighbor said she lived there. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2006, Sandow was appointed deputy chief clerk at the board\u2019s Bronx offices, after serving as executive director of the county\u2019s Republican Party beginning in 1998. Sandow voted in the Bronx from 2001 through 2004 and in 2006 while living in New City, Rockland County, the Department of Investigation found in 2008.<\/p>\n

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\"Board
Board of Elections executive director Mike Ryan has been on medical leave for months.<\/figcaption>
AP\/Mark Lennihan<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

On Tuesday, the mayoral election was thrown into a state of chaos when first-round lead holder Eric Adams and others noted that preliminary\u00a0results released in the afternoon showed 941,832 votes were cast for the Democratic mayoral nomination \u2014 a significant increase from the 799,827 ballots counted on primary day. <\/p>\n

The BOE then issued a statement citing an \u201cirregularity\u201d before pulling down the vote tallies from its website. It explained late Tuesday that the discrepancy was caused by accidentally including about 130,000 \u201ctest\u201d results in the vote count.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been determined that ballot images used for testing were not cleared from the Election Management System (EMS),\u201d the board said in a tweeted statement. <\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the cast votes were extracted for the first pull of RCV [ranked choice voting] results, it included both test and election night results, producing approximately 135,000 additional records,\u201d the board went on. \u201cThe board apologizes for the error and has taken immedia<\/a>te measures to ensure the most accurate up to date results are reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BOE is run by commissioners selected by the county Democratic and Republican parties, a state constitutional dictate, and has largely quashed efforts to reform its operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Myoral
Mayoral candidate Eric Adams pointed out that Democratic primary results released in the afternoon showed a significant increase from the 799,827 ballots counted on primary day. <\/figcaption>
REUTERS\/Brendan McDermid<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because they don\u2019t answer to the governor or mayor, little has been done to reform their operations.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s ballot botch represented the latest \u2014 and maybe worst \u2014 in several years of missteps by the BOE.<\/p>\n

The board admitted to violating election laws by\u00a0purging 200,000 voters\u00a0from its rolls ahead of the 2016 presidential primary. That year, 20 percent of trained poll workers didn\u2019t show up to work on Election Day. <\/p>\n

In November 2018, high election day humidity rendered its new, $56 million scanners inoperable. <\/p>\n

And during the 2020 presidential primaries, the board disqualified 80,000 ballots, because officials weren\u2019t ready to handle the\u00a0increase in mailed votes\u00a0cast due to in-person voting concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan<\/em>\n <\/div>\n