Greg and Janna Spock with son Austin

Months before a local Democrat triggered an investigation into voter registrations of likely Republicans in Pelham Manor, one of the Manor’s most aggressive critics of Democrats got a local party leader expelled from the Pelham voting rolls.

Steven Shekane, an outspoken critic of local Democrats on social media and at local public meetings, sent a dossier of property records and maps to the Westchester County Board of Elections this summer, urging the panel to erase Gregory Spock and his wife Janna from the Pelham voting rolls and relegate them to New Rochelle. 

The records and maps demonstrated that Spock’s house, at 24 Fraser Street, was almost entirely in New Rochelle, with only a small fraction of the structure in the Village of Pelham. Shekane argued that the Spocks should have to vote in New Rochelle.  

In an email to Douglas Colety, the Repubulican commissioner on the bipartisan board, Shekane wrote:

“I wanted to bring something to your attention that you may or may not be aware of. The residents of 24 Fraser Street (Greg and Janna Spock) are currently registered to vote in the Village of Pelham. While the address is Pelham, NY, the tax maps show that this home is actually in New Rochelle. By any legal definition, the occupants of this home are residents of New Rochelle, given a tiny part of their home is in Pelham, not residents of Pelham, and thus should not be entitled to vote in Pelham.

Steven Shekane

“In fact, if you look at the property taxes for this home, the overwhelming majority is being paid to New Rochelle, not Pelham. Only $152 in property taxes were paid to PUFSD last year versus nearly $10K paid to New Rochelle schools. In addition, per the attached documents you can see that the New Rochelle Building Department has jurisdiction over this home.

“Similarly, the residents of 97 Storer Ave have a property that is located in both NR [New Rochelle] and Pelham. That home actually has a New Rochelle address, the adults are not registered voters in Pelham (which means they are not residents), and the majority of their property taxes are paid to New Rochelle. So one home has NR voters and the other has Pelham voters.

“I have attached public records on the property at 24 Fraser. Can we have these two individuals removed from the Pelham roll? Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Based on the evidence Shekane accumulated, the board agreed and notified the Spocks of the decision.

But the Board of Elections went further than Shekane’s request, purging Spock’s neighbors–Peter and Andrea Cork–from the Pelham voting rolls. The maps that Shekane used in his brief against Spock demonstrated that the Corks’ house, at 22 Fraser Street, was also mostly set on the New Rochelle side of the border.

Peter and Andi Cork

Contacted by phone, Shekane said he wasn’t aware that his pitch to the county board had succeeded or that his brief had resulted in the Corks’ expulsion. He declined to comment any further, but he did address the Democrats’ history of challenging absentee ballots in a letter to the Examiner last week. The Pelham Examiner obtained the contents of Shekane’s dossier through a FOIL request.

Spock resigned from being a district leader for the Pelham Democrats and stepped down from the executive board of the Pelham Democratic Committee. He also confirmed with the school district that his son could remain at Colonial Elementary School. Spock continues to serve as a member of the Town of Pelham Sustainability Advisory Board.

In a message, Spock wrote about how he felt about getting pushed off the Pelham voting rolls: 

“Growing up as a musician, I heard ‘no’ a lot. Despite my comfort with ‘no’ being part of the learning and growing process, hearing I could no longer vote in Pelham felt different. It didn’t help that the news came abruptly through a letter from the Westchester Board of Elections and during the difficult time when we had to make arrangements for the end-of-life care for our beloved rescue dog Mario. But rules and rules, and I accept the cards I’m dealt. Our family continues to love and support our local Pelham community, even if we cannot vote here.”

The Corks, who have lived on Fraser Street since 2003 and raised their three sons here, were puzzled when they received letters from the county board this summer. A native of Manchester, England, Peter Cork became a US citizen in 2008.

Asked how he felt about losing his voting rights in Pelham, Cork wrote:  “I got the letter and wondered about due process, precedents and the value of voting where most of your taxes are spent. Apparently they aren’t as important as I thought.”

As for local Democrats, they are on notice that Shekane is watching them, literally.

Local party supporters held a pre-election rally outside Flour Power at Four Corners on Sunday.  After the event concluded, Shekane took several photos of prominent Democrats, including Cardwell and Town of Pelham Deputy Supervisor Maura Curtin, and posted them on Facebook this morning.