Election Fraud Allegations in Hempstead School District

A school clerk in Long Island has been accused of manipulating the school board elections by tearing up ballots and discarding them to ensure her chosen candidate prevailed, according to a recently uncovered internal investigation.

April Keyes, the Secretary of the Hempstead Union Free School District, allegedly orchestrated this scheme during the board election held on May 19. She reportedly smuggled official ballots out of her office and provided absentee ballots to her favored candidate, Victor Pratt, allowing him to dispose of them, as outlined in a petition filed by the district with the state Department of Education.

Keyes could face potential criminal charges as the school district attempts to annul Pratt’s tightly contested victory.

The district’s attorneys argue, “The school board election must be overturned because widespread fraud was so pervasive that it affected the outcome of the election and compromised the election process.”

Filed on June 15 and made public recently, the petition requests the state Department of Education’s Secretary, Betty Rosa, to initiate a new election for a replacement clerk, while seeking oversight from the state Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights.

Concerns over the integrity of the election emerged when significant irregularities were detected. Pratt won by a mere 81 votes, but the investigation highlighted an unusually high number of absentee and early mail-in ballots that contributed to his win, even though he ranked third in the machine voting.

Specifically, Pratt secured 87% of the absentee votes and 55% of early mail-in votes, in stark contrast to just 27% from in-person machine votes, while other candidates received considerably fewer absentee and mail-in ballots.