Democratic socialist, immigrant rights attorney and Assembly District 38 candidate David Orkin alleges in a lawsuit that the campaign of incumbent Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar (D-Woodhaven) forged petition signatures in an effort to secure her a spot on the ballot in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The suit, filed in Queens State Supreme Court on April 16 and first reported by City & State, alleges that at least nine residents of the district had their signatures forged on Rajkumar\u2019s petition, identified during a standard review by the Orkin campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Rajkumar\u2019s campaign submitted more than 2,500 signatures, easily passing the 500 required to get on the ballot, Orkin\u2019s lawsuit called into question the credibility of seven individuals who claimed to witness more than 70 percent of the purported signatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cUpon information and belief, the Designating Petition likely contains additional forgeries purportedly witnessed by additional subscribing witnesses,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n
One of the signatures in question is that of Cary Tilton, a Democratic Socialists of America member and Orkin campaign volunteer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can imagine my shock and anger when I saw my own name on a Rajkumar petition sheet with a fraudulent signature,\u201d Tilton said in a statement. \u201cSigning this petition would fly in the face of every action and decision I\u2019ve made in years and is an impossibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additional neighbors had their names appear multiple times on the petition sheets, Orkin\u2019s campaign alleges, signatures they said they confirmed are fake.<\/p>\n
The Orkin campaign said it uncovered \u201ca disturbing pattern of fraud,\u201d including multiple entries for voters who confirmed not to have signed the petitions; signatures that do not match voter registration records; whole petition pages with similar, illegible signatures; and entries with nonexistent addresses.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning for office is a privilege; one that I do not take lightly,\u201d Orkin said in a statement. \u201cOur volunteer-led petitioning efforts connected our campaign directly with hundreds of residents in District 38 looking for a candidate who will stand up to corruption and fight for a more affordable city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to a swift and transparent review by the Board of Elections and Queens Supreme Court to ensure that election rules are applied fairly and that the voices of Queens\u2019 voters are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rajkumar responded to the allegations in her own court filing, also on April 16, in which she said her \u201cpetition is in all respects valid and in due and proper form.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video posted to social media on Sunday, Rajkumar said the DSA is running a \u201chate campaign\u201d against her, targeting her religion, questioning her qualifications as an attorney and now \u201cmanufacturing baseless accusations against my petitions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rajkumar campaign spokesperson Arvind Sooknanan in a statement said, \u201cAssemblywoman Rajkumar\u2019s inspiring, tireless grassroots campaign crushed the DSA political machine, collecting nearly 1,000 more signatures than they did and six times the number legally required. DSA\u2019s mudslinging is a desperate attempt to deflect from serious allegations by Latinos Against Socialism that its petitions are riddled with fraud. No counterattack can distract from those troubling claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
Latinos Against Socialism has called for investigations into the petitions of Orkin and Assemblymember Claire Valdez (D-Sunnyside), a DSA member who is running for Congress. No objections were filed to Orkin\u2019s petition signatures at the city Board of Elections or in court, per City & State.<\/p>\n
Sooknanan called Orkin\u2019s lawsuit a \u201cblatant political stunt from a DSA-backed campaign that knows it cannot compete on the ground. You cannot litigate your way out of weak grassroots support.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cTeam Jenifer looks forward to a resounding win at the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court is expected to schedule a hearing and make a ruling by mid-May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic socialist, immigrant rights attorney and Assembly District 38 candidate David Orkin alleges in a lawsuit that the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[80694,80693,416,609,16021,9,24,63,122,124,123,2613,29388],"class_list":{"0":"post-204004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-assembly-district-38","9":"tag-david-orkin","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-government","12":"tag-jenifer-rajkumar","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-queens-headlines","18":"tag-queens-news","19":"tag-ridgewood","20":"tag-woodhaven"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}