Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on March 11, 2015

Village Board Threatened to Cancel Voter Registration

Martyna Starosta

Unwelcome: Developer Shalom Lamm says he faces anti-Semitism.

Published March 10, 2015.

NEW YORK (JTA) Hasidic residents of an upstate New York village are suing the countys board of elections to have their voting rights restored.

More than two dozen residents of Bloomingburg filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against the Sullivan County Board of Elections alleging that the board was attempting to disenfranchise them. The suit asks the judge to certify the suit as class action to cover all the Hasidic residents of the town.

The board sent notices on Jan. 16 to 184 of 285 registered voters in the village threatening to cancel their voter registration, according to the suit, and nearly all the recipients were Hasidic Jews.

The Board plainly singled out these voters for challenge based entirely upon their religion, the lawsuit alleges.

According to the suit, the notice targeted to Hasidic voters required them to prove why their registration shouldnt be canceled. While this targeted request was unconstitutional on its face, Plaintiffs and other Hasidic Jews nonetheless came forward and attested to their residency. But this process was a farce, the lawsuit says. On February 27, 2015, the BOE issued a blanket notice stating that it would cancel 156 of the 184 voters registrations. The BOE provided no reasoned or individualized explanation for this decision to deprive those 156 residents of their fundamental constitutional rights.

The elections board referred an inquiry to a board attorney, who did not return a call from JTA seeking comment.

Link:

Hasidim in Bloomingburg, New York Sue for Right to Vote

Category: Hasidic
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