Second place finisher Hector Ramirez (l.) says he will file a civil suit against Victor Pichardo (r.), the Board of Elections and state Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Assemblyman Carl Heastie.
The Board of Elections has finally named a winner in a tight and fraud-mired Bronx Assembly race — even as a new lawsuit is being prepped that will challenge the results.
Victor Pichardo, the Bronx county machine’s pick in the special election to replace disgraced Assemblyman Nelson Castro, held a slim 72-vote lead on Primary Night — and that lead increased to 82 votes when paper ballots were added in, the elections board is set to announce Wednesday.
But second place finisher Hector Ramirez says he will file a civil suit against Pichardo, the Board of Elections and state Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Assemblyman Carl Heastie, who are part of a “corrupt political machine,” Ramirez said.
Photo courtesy Haile Rivera
Haile Rivera, who lost a special election for the 86th District Bronx Assembly seat, posted this Facebook image of a voting machine in which voters were not given proper levers to choose him.
The suit will cite multiple irregularities, including:
l Inspectors paid by the Board of Elections — including Pichardo’s mother — were used as “campaign workers for the handpicked candidate” and were “telling voters how to vote, often pointing at Mr. Pichardo as the way to do so.”
l Rivera and Heastie “bullied” candidates’ delegates inside polling places.
l Ramirez’s name did not appear on the ballot at one polling place; at others, the lever next to his name was stuck; machines at still other polls were shut down, and voters said they were turned away. At one polling site, all the levers were broken except for those next to Pichardo’s name.
l Many instances of miscounting of paper ballots.
“Everybody knows that there were a lot of irregularities in this process. There clearly was fraud,” said Ramirez. “Victor Pichardo, together with Gustavo Rivera and Carl Heastie committed fraud. I’m sure that I won this election.
“We have to stop this,” he added. “It’s shameful that in the United States of America that these kind of things can happen. Sooner or later we will prevail.”
James Keivom for New York Daily News
Haile Rivera, one of the losing candidates in the special election to fill the 86th District Bronx Assembly seat
Rivera defended Pichardo, who was his former staffer, and dismissed the allegations, calling them the “ludicrous” sour grapes of “sore losers” who don’t want to see progress in the Bronx.
“I am disheartened,” the senator told the Daily News. “I have an unimpeachable record of transparency, and I resent that these accusations are being made.”
Pichardo could not be reached for comment. Heastie’s office declined to comment.
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