The petition submitted by Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Woodhaven) to secure a spot on the June primary ballot includes a signature purporting to be from Queens Chronicle Editor Kristen Guglielmo, who did not sign the document.
Guglielmo, who lives in Assembly District 38, emailed democratic socialist David Orkin’s campaign last week, after she saw a post on his social media offering voters the opportunity to check whether their names were on Rajkumar’s petitions. Orkin on April 16 filed a lawsuit in Queens State Supreme Court to invalidate his opponent’s petition and keep her off the ballot, alleging that her campaign had forged some signatures.
Orkin’s campaign responded to Guglielmo on Tuesday, sharing a scan of a petition that contained her name and address.
“I did not sign that, and that is not my signature,” she said. Her name also is misspelled, as “Kristhen.”
Guglielmo did not sign any petitions for AD 38. On Wednesday, she signed a sworn legal declaration affirming that she did not sign Rajkumar’s.
Orkin’s lawsuit states that multiple district residents had their signatures forged on Rajkumar’s petition — it names nine allegedly fraudulent signatures that were found “in the short time period to review petitions.” It says also that the petition “likely contains additional forgeries purportedly witnessed by additional subscribing witnesses.”
Rajkumar needed 500 signatures to get on the ballot and submitted more than 2,500, but the suit questions the credibility of seven people who claimed to witness more than 70 percent of the purported signatures. An Orkin spokesperson on Tuesday cast doubt on nine petitioners and said they held a combined 85 percent of her signatures.
“As we have alleged from the beginning, we believe we have strong evidence that the Rajkumar campaign participated in widespread petitioning fraud,” Orkin said in an emailed statement. “The fact that they would go so far as to forge the signature of a known reporter in the community just shows that they never anticipated getting caught.”
On April 22, amNewYork reported that 1,064 of Rajkumar’s submitted signatures were invalidated on ordinary election-law grounds after review by a Board of Elections clerk, leaving her with just under 1,500.
Arvind Sooknanan, Rajkumar’s campaign spokesperson, said in a statement via text Wednesday that the campaign cannot comment on the specifics of an active legal proceeding.
“We are confident in our campaign’s position and look forward to addressing the facts in court tomorrow,” he said.
In her own court filing April 16, Rajkumar said her petition is “valid and in due and proper form.”
Rajkumar also ascribed the fraud allegations to the Democratic Socialists of America, calling the accusations “disgraceful, dishonest and intentionally misleading” in a statement on social media April 20.
“South Queens deserves better than a socialist machine willing to corrupt the democratic process in order to cling to power,” she said. In a separate post, she accused the DSA of “waging a campaign of hate” against her that is “rooted in sexism, religious bigotry, and outright lies.”
“Love will always triumph over hate,” she wrote. “Truth will always defeat lies.”
The next court appearance is set for today, April 30, and a ruling is expected this week.
“Our case against the Rajkumar campaign is about ensuring the trust of our community isn’t taken for granted in this election,” Orkin said. “We look forward to our day in court to ensure all the facts come to light and no one is able to benefit from defrauding our democratic systems.”