For Immediate Release, July 6, 2010

Contact: press@michaelzumbluskas.org

Petition Fraud on the Upper East Side:

Maloney, Kellner and Kruger encourage underage campaign workers to break the law
New York, NY—Two underage petitioners were observed, and one photographed, last week collecting signatures on the
street for three of Manhattan’s Democratic incumbents—Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, State Assemblyman Micah
Kellner and State Senator Liz Kruger, all of whom represent Upper East Side constituencies. The illegal petitioning
occurred at 86th Street and First Avenue during the evening of June 30th between about 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm.

The young people were collecting signatures on the southwest corner, while the adult petition witness was standing on
the northeast corner. Under New York law, the petition witness is supposed to be the person who actually collects the
signature—not someone across the street.

New York’s ballot laws are routinely violated during every electoral cycle not only by East Side incumbents but also by
politicians across the city. Assemblyman Sheldon Silver—the State Assembly Speaker—has turned in petition signatures
collected by undocumented aliens. Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat sends out petition gatherers weeks before the start
date, then has his campaign staff postdate the signatures. State Senator Frank Padavan accepts the support of the
Independence Party’s infamous Lenora Fulani wing, which routinely forges signatures to put cross-endorsed incumbents
on the IP ballot line.

The underlying pattern is that powerful incumbents and their allies get away with flagrant violations of the election laws,
while insurgent candidates routinely get kicked off the ballot for the slightest clerical error.

It’s getting more difficult with every passing year to collect signatures on the streets or door to door. Too many people
are unwilling to sign because they are turned off by New York’s corrupt and cynical politics, or because they are worried
about identity theft. And the number of petitions required to get on the ballot is clearly excessive—one more example
of how the deck is stacked to favor incumbents.

New York is currently spending millions of dollars a year on dysfunctional election boards that provide a veneer of
democracy while perpetuating the incumbency of failed leaders citywide and statewide. Political hacks dominate the
local boards, with the result—predictably—that voter rolls are filled with out-of-date information, misspelled names,
wrong addresses and the names of voters who passed away years ago. In addition, we see—in spite of the current need
for city and state budget discipline—an outrageous amount of questionable overtime pay flowing into the pockets of
board employees while the hacks look the other way.

We need an efficient electoral system. We also need a fair system—a system that treats all candidates equally, with zero
tolerance for electoral fraud whether it’s committed by incumbents or by challengers.

Michael Zumbluskas, State Assembly candidate for the 65th A.D.

At last, a responsible candidate.