In a super-tight Republican primary in Brooklyn, where 16 votes separated winner from loser, Rose J. Chiara’s absentee ballot deserves an extra layer of scrutiny.
She had last voted 17 years ago, in the 2008 presidential primaries. She was 94 then, and would be 112 today, had it not been for her death in 2013.
The recent vote in Ms. Chiara’s name in an otherwise obscure City Council primary is one of a number of ballots that appear to be fraudulent, leading to growing calls for a criminal investigation.
“It’s a hustle. It’s a scheme. It’s a subversion of democracy,” Joseph Chiara, 80, Ms. Chiara’s son, said after being told of his mother’s supposed vote. “I think it’s a horrible crime.”
Ms. Chiara is one of at least three dead people who had ballots cast in their names in the contest, according to records and earlier reports. Several other suspicious votes came from people, very much alive, who say they had no idea their ballots had been cast. For whom, no one could say.
The number of potentially fraudulent ballots — over two dozen so far — exceeds George Sarantopoulos’s margin of victory over Richie Barsamian, chairman of the Kings County Republican Party, in the District 47 race in southern Brooklyn.
The city Board of Elections, after conducting an investigation, asked the Brooklyn district attorney’s office last week to investigate the potential ballot fraud. Prosecutors confirmed that they have received the referral, but could not comment further.
The board also took issue with 22 “potentially fraudulent” paper ballots discovered after the votes had been tallied on Primary Day. At a meeting of the board to certify the election on Tuesday, Brooklyn staff members reported that the 22 ballots — which were not scanned by voting machines — were from Election District 63 near Coney Island; investigators “could not attribute these ballots to specific voters.”
Another statistical oddity emerged from the uncounted 22 ballots. John Ciampoli, a lawyer assisting Mr. Barsamian, said that he was told by an elections official that most or all were cast in favor of Mr. Barsamian.
Since the recount concluded Friday, The New York Times has uncovered more suggestions of fraud.
In addition to the late Ms. Chiara, two people shown as casting absentee ballots in the election told The Times this week that they did not vote in the primary. And the husband of a third alleged voter said he and his wife always vote together and that neither cast a ballot in the race this year.
Those suspect votes come on the heels of a New York Post article that found two other dead voters and a living absentee voter. Combined with The Times’s findings, that would constitute seven potentially fraudulent ballots, including three from dead voters.
One commonality among the four living voters: the lack of any previous local primary voting history in Board of Elections records. For example, Hipolito Vasquez, 42, had recorded an absentee vote only once before, in the 2020 presidential election.
On his most recent absentee ballot application, Mr. Vasquez wrote that he wanted to vote in federal elections, only to have an absentee ballot cast in his name in the Republican primary in Brooklyn. Contacted by The Times on Monday, Mr. Vasquez, who is away from New York serving in the military, said he never asked for or sent in an absentee ballot in the now-disputed Council race.
“One hundred percent no, I did not vote at all,” he said. “I don’t even know what race you’re talking about.”
Liana Said, 37, was similarly surprised to learn that she had been recorded as casting an absentee ballot in the 2025 race. She never asked to vote in the primary, was unfamiliar with the race and is now living abroad.
“I’m trying to figure out what to do about it at this point,” she said. “I definitely didn’t vote.”
The board on Tuesday, after a brief discussion of the fraud that marred the race, certified Mr. Sarantopoulos as the victor by a vote of 1,126 to 1,110, a 16-margin squeaker. Speaking to the board after the certification vote, Mr. Sarantopoulos said he understood there are “employees at the B.O.E.” — the Board of Elections — “who are being investigated and needing to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
“I hope the Brooklyn D.A. moves ahead with a full investigation to achieve that,” Mr. Sarantopoulos added. “We can’t let this stand.”
Mr. Barsamian, whose role as party boss gives him considerable influence over which Republican staffers get hired by the Board of Elections, is “conferring with his team and considering all his options,” according to a statement his lawyer released.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Jay Root is an investigative reporter for The Times based in Albany, N.Y., covering the people and events influencing — and influenced by — state and local government.
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