The day before election day, when a good number (at least in the context of this year) of the City’s electorate had already cast early votes, I was awakened by a call from my fellow election law practitioner, Ali Najmi, warning of a potential problem in Bay Ridge, where my client, Democrat Justin Brannan, was facing off in a closely-watched race for Council with the politically non-binary Ari Kagan.
Ali bore warnings of a Citywide campaign to encourage voters to write in the slogan “Free Palestine” in any race where there wasn’t a clearly preferable alternative. He shared a copy of a piece of literature which encouraged such votes.
Brannan’s Bay Ridge base was the home of a large community of Moslem and/or Arab Americans, many of them of Palestinian origin; this was probably going to cost him more votes than it would his opponent.
The Board of Election’s (BOE) legal counsel, Hemalee Patel, assured the both of us that the Board would only count votes for names, but not slogans, and Ali then spread the word far and wide among his Islamic political contacts that such votes would not be counted.
At least one of those contacts, Hesham El-Meligy, announced a change of plan, with was different in content, but not in kind:
“Important change” read one El-Meligy tweet, “An election lawyer confirmed that “Free Palestine” is considered a slogan and won’t be tabulated…if someone uses it as a write-in. The write-in must be a person’s name, even if fictional….So, instead of wasting your vote, if you like, write-in the fictional (but powerfully symbolic) name: “Adam Gaza.”
And so it was.
I’ve been doing an annual review of write-in votes since my days as Gatemouth on Ben Smith’s late, lamented Room Eight; many times they are good for laughs, and sometimes they are deeply revealing. Last year, for instance, it was clear that, in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities throughout the City, some had organized campaigns to cast write-in votes for at least two well-known opponents of LGBTQ rights, the late Rabbi Avigdor Miller, and former Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis.
This year, it was Adam Gaza for those opposing the Israeli incursion and, to a far lesser extent, Holocaust Survivor Miriam Tyrk, for those who felt Jewish concerns were being ignored or minimized. The BOE’s Hemalee Patel assures me there were also a large number of votes citywide for “Free Palestine, ” though it is unlikely we will ever know how many.
Hereby, a report on this year’s write-ins.
Ground Rules: To open, and be recorded by me, one needs at least double digits, or to run first, or be tied for first, in any jurisdiction (two vote minimum). Once one meets this threshold, votes will count for any reasonable variation on the vote-getter’s name. This year, an exception will be made for all Middle East related protest votes.
COUNCIL DISTRICT 39. The most vehement response from the anti-anti-Israel side came, not in any Orthodox Jewish stronghold, but in Council District 39, where most Israel sympathizers are nearly as anti-Bibi as they are anti-Hamas. Councilwoman Shahana Hanif was already facing hostility before October 7, as a result of her vote against a resolution condemning Anti-Semitism; her appearance to explain herself at one liberal Park Slope Synagogue over the summer led to widespread derision. Post October 7, when Hanif’s posts clearly indicated a desire that Israel go out of business, one local columnist organized a write-in campaign for his mother-in-law, Miriam Tyrk, a 97 year old Holocaust survivor, with the slogan of “Shoah E’nuff.”
417 write in votes were cast in District 39, the largest count in the City for any district where the incumbent already had an opponent on the ballot.
Of course, not all those votes were pro-Israel or Anti-Anti-Anti-Anti Semitism. Adam Gaza got one vote, as did Brandon West, who had run against Hanif for Council four years before, embracing a boycott of Israel (Hanif had not taken a public position), while Brad Lander, who carefully attempts to find the sweet spot between the mildly Zionist J Street and the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace got 7 votes. But the 6 votes for Anne Frank, 25 votes for Miriam Tyrk, an Anne Frank who lived to tell the tale, 13 for the outspokenly anti-anti-Semitic District Leader Doug Schneider (and one for his his wife, Joni Kletter), 11 for Yisroel Wolfson, 9 for Park Slope Rabbi Rachel Timoner, 5 for Councilman Kalman Yeger, 5 for Justin Krebs, a former Council candidate, 4 for pro-Israel Congressman Ritchie Torres, 4 for Joe Biden, 3 for former Public Advocate candidate Jared Rick, 3 apiece for always pro-Israel Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill Deblasio, and 3 for Dorothy Siegel, a former Working Families Party Leader who recently left the party, partially out of frustration with what she saw as various left-wing excesses, as well as the votes for many others, myself included (but misspelled) indicate the level of frustration, as does the large number of “Unattributable” vote, although we will never know if “Am Yisrael Chai” beat out “Free Palestine.”
And now the rest of the vote in jurisdictions entirely or partially in Brooklyn :
Surrogate: Donald Trump 140
Joe Murray 98
Ari Kagan 23
Curtis Sliwa 23
Lee Zeldin 14
Timothy Peterson 13
Inna Vernikov 12
Adam Gaza 1
Supreme Court: Thomas Kenniff 99
Donald Trump 96
Adam Gaza 69
Heshy Tischler 18
Christopher Robles 12
Curtis Sliwa 11
Chester A. Arthur 11
Civil Court (Countywide): Donald Trump 180
Daniel Kogan 99
Adan Gaza 45
Curtis Sliwa 39
Rudy Giuliani 27
Heshy Tischler 26
Lee Zeldin 19
Timothy Peterson 16
Inna Vernikov 15
Civil Court (1st District): Donald Trump 5
Miriam Tyrk 1
Adam Gaza 1
Civil Court (2nd District): Seven candidates, most unknown, got two votes apiece; Curtis Sliwa was the most famous. I’d list the others, but in most cases, no one would care.
Despite its determination that the dozens, if not hundreds of votes throughout the City for “Free Palestine” could not be counted because that was a slogan, not a person, the Board of Elections still managed to count 2 votes here for “Sadrise Don Phalaistin” a misspelling of “Saoirse Don Phalaistin,” which means “Freedom for Palestine”.
When reached for response, Board Counsel Hemalee Patel noted that “there are 11 individuals with the first name “Saoirse” No word though on how many were named Sadrise.
Civil Court (District 3): Donald Trump 7
33rd Council District: Joseph Lentol 33
34th Council District: Craig Montalbano 2
Curtis Sliwa 2
Donald Trump 2
35th Council District: Kenny Leaver 129
Michael Hollingworth 29
Dave Colon 11
There’s a story here somewhere that someone should write. Damned if I know what it is though.
36th Council District: Henry Butler 3
37th Council District: Richard Simmons 4
38th Council District: Susan Zhang 12
40th Council District: Blake Morris 4
Inna Vernikov 4
Miriam Tyrk 2
41st Council District: Inez McIntosh Green 27
42 Council District: To my surprise, the perpetually disgruntled incumbent Charles Barron, defeated by in the Democratic Primary by Chris Banks, was NOT the top write-in vote-getter in his district. Even when attributing to him the one vote humorously cast for Chris Barron, Barron still lost to the City’s leading petition fraudulator, Skiboky Skora, who once ran for Mayor on the “Out Lawbreaker” ticket, and this year tried, unsuccessfully, to bogart the name of Barron’s old Freedom Party for his own purposes, did manage to beat Barron by a landslide margin of 89 to 26, meaning that Barron has grown old-hat even amongst his base in the lunatic fringe. .
43rd Council District: Wei Yee Chan 10
44th Council District: Susan Zhang 8
46th Council District: Donald Cranston 17
47th Council District: Katherine Khatari 16
Nicholas Chamboras 13
48th Council District: Ari Kagan 10
Miriam Tyrk 3
50th Council District: Max Rose 36
Justin Brannan 20
Adam Gaza 11
Carla Mohan 11
In Manhattan, Adam Gaza received 3 votes for Supreme Court, 3 for Civil Court (Countywide), 1 in the 3rd Municipal Court District, one in the 6th Council District, and 2 in the 8th Council District.
In the Bronx, Gaza received 25 votes for District Attorney, 28 for Supreme Court, 24 for Civil Court (Countywide), 12 in the 1st Municipal Court District, 8 in the 11th Council District, 2 in the 12th Council District, 3 in the 13th Council District, 1 in the 14th Council District, and 5 in the 18th Council District.
In Staten Island, Gaza received 24 votes for District Attorney, 10 for Civil Court, 5 in the 49th Council District, and 7 for the 51st.
In Queens, which seems to be Adam’s base, he got 72 votes for District Attorney, 78 votes for Supreme Court, 52 votes for Civil Court, 6 votes in the 1st Municipal Court District, 16 in the 2nd, 6 in the 4th, and 12 in the 6th. He also got 3 votes in Council District 19, I in District 20, 4 in District 21, 1 in District 22, 12 in District 23, 12 in District 24, 4 in District 25, 3 in District 26, 3 in District 27, 7 in District 28, 1 in District 29, 2 in District 31, and 5 in District 32.
What can I say; even a left-Zionist like myself must admit the Adam Gaza campaign, launched on one day’s notice, was extremely well-played.
