This situation in the 17th Legislative district is a travesty and I assure you, if this were a Republican campaign attorney involved in this blatant fraud, the Democrats would be all over it. Because Mr. Soto is one of their own, although everyone from Andy Spano on down knows full well he committed fraud to enable Alvarado to claim an unearned victory, there is a code of silence.

I, as a democrat, am ashamed. Cheating is cheating, and Annabi is clearly the superior candidate, yet the democratic party props up this inarticulate hack Alvarado.

I filed a Freedom of Information Law request for it on September 22d. Under the law, the Board had fives days to produce the documents. It ignored my request, as it did prior FOIL requests from Ms. Annabi.

As for court, Justice Loehr dictated his decision into the record. The Journal News should obtain the transcript. It will verify my statement that Ms. Annabi’s cross-petition was dismissed because her lawyer, Thomas Spargo, failed to obtain permission to proceed by cross-petition and did not file a plenary petition. The cases cited were Williams v. Rennselaer County Board of Elections v. 98 A.D.2d 938, 471 N.Y.S.2d 373 (3d Dept., 1983) and O’Connor v. D’Apice, 156 A.D.2d 610, 549 N.Y.S.2d 424 (2d Dept., 1989) which hold that cross-petitions in special proceedings under Article IV of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules are not permitted absent permission from the court.

Alvarado’s lawyer, Wilson Soto, filed the petition to have the court declare Alvarado the winner on Wednesday, September 23d. Ms. Annabi was served on September 24th, and Soto and Spargo appeared in court on September 25th. Spargo should have filed Ms. Annabi’s plenary petition to invaldidate Alvarado’s fraudulent votes that day, or alternatively, obtained Justice Loehr’s permission to proceed by cross-petition. He did neither. As a result, Ms. Annabi’s witnesses were never heard.

That was a tragedy for her, and for the majority 17th District voters who voted for her, only to see Alvarado, the losing candidate, declared the winner.

Your job is to report the news, when you want to be a columnist or an editorial page writer then you give your opinion.

Annabi’s positions are not “misrepresented”:

The LDC is a bad deal for Yonkers? Annabi was one of two Councilmembers that had that opinion. The benefits to Yonkers are clearly defined, the people she is supposed to represent could use the jobs that are generated, the City can use the revenue now and in the future.

She voted against the budget because of cuts to fire and police? Councilmember Annabi should have voted for the budget that had no cuts to budget, like Lesnick and McDow did. That budget had NO CUTS to fire and police like she wanted.

Councilmember Annabi is the Education Chair, the schools have documented 1.5 BILLION dollars of Capital need. That happened because Annabi failed to maintain a level of investment in the schools that the City Council controls. The Education Chair should have gone out to the schools, look at the condition of the buildings and worked on a plan with the school district to maintain the City-owned buildings. You have reported the crumbling school conditions which impact the people she represents. Another way to put this is that the City Council needs to invest 100 million in the schools for the next 15 years just to get to the needed repairs today.

Finally Mr. Garcia, you might want to post a copy of the actual decision from the Court so everyone could read what the court actually reviewed and what was the determination on those points. I know Gannett has cut down the coverage but you might go to Board of Elections and get copies of the actual objections to the absentee and affidavit ballots that could be the subject of court action and put those on the site as well.

Further, Alvarado’s assertion that Ms. Annabi’s “claims of election fraud were thoroughly reviewed and … denied by a Westchester County Court Judge” is false, and Alvarado knows it is false. To the contrary, due to a fatal procedural mistake by her attorney, Ms. Annabi’s cross-petition to challenge fraudulent Alvarado votes was dismissed, not heard, and as a result, Justice Gerald Loehr would not permit any of Ms. Annabi’s witnesses to testify. Had those witnesses be heard, it is likely Justice Loehr would have declared Ms. Annabi the primary winner, not Alvarado.

Alvarado’s lawyer, Wilson Soto, resides at 8 Huron Road in the Yonkers Eleventh Ward, 5th Election District, which is outside the 17th County District. Yet, he cast his vote for Alvarado in the Yonkers Fourth Ward, Sixth Election district, which is within the 17th County District. That vote was not only fraudulent, casting it was a felony under both the Election Law and Penal Law.

Mr. Alvarado knows this, and yet, deceives voters by claiming a criminal vote for him is nothing but “baseless fraud allegations.”

As for the “the heavy lifting to actually get the job done,” voters need only compare Ms. Annabi’s record to that of Mr. Alvarado who presides over the budget committee of a legislative body that controls $1.8 billion in the highest taxed, highest spending county in the nation. There is not a tax increase or pork project or wasteful expense he does not like. Indeed, Mr. Alvarado brags about his “record of approving money” which he claims helps “every person in Yonkers.”

In contrast, Ms. Annabi is a fiscal hawk who zealously protected Yonkers’ taxpayers in her last eight years on the City Council.

The 17th County District overlaps with Ms. Annabi’s 2d Council District and is comprised mostly of poor and working class folks. Mr. Alvarado has demonstrated his contempt for his constituency by his profligate spending of their hard earned tax dollars on pork and wasteful projects. In contrast, Sandy Annabi is the candidate who cares for her constituency and will protect their core, economic interests on the Westchester Board of Legilsators.

For 17th District voters, the choice is clear. Alvarado stole the September 15th primary. Voters can remedy this injustice by voting on the Conservative or Independence Party lines for Ms. Annabi on November 3d. As President Obama reminded voters in the presidential election, “the time for change is now.”