Collins Report

By Suzanne Eovaldi

Election boards in Westchester County and Fishkill, New York are using invalid Spanish voter application forms outlawed by the New York State Board of Elections eight years ago.

These invalid forms ask would be Spanish voters in Spanish: “ser cuidadano norte americano:” are you a citizen of North America? The corrected form out of the Albany web site asks in Spanish: “ser cuidadano estadounidense:”are you a United States citizen?
When asked to explain this major discrepancy, Reginald Lafayette of the Westchester County BOE expressed surprise, saying. “We’ve never had a complaint on this,” and said he would “give it to our translators.”

The Fishkill Town Clerk was not available for comment, but John Conklin, Director of Public Information of the State BoE said “That’s wrong. They should not be using that form. . .we haven’t used it for eight years.”

He went on to say in spite of the fact “we’ve instructed everyone to get rid of [those forms ]they still crop up. Conklin said every so often this form pops up in Suffolk County as well.

He was unaware the Westchester and Fishkill application forms still relied on the North American citizenship requirement rather than the US citizen requirement to vote.

Nevertheless, a local source paints a far different picture of the deference given to Spanish voter applicants. When the source contacted the Dutchess County BOE asking if a Mexican Matricula Consular ID card was an acceptable form of photo ID, the source was told “Yes.”

Mr. Conklin told this reporter the Martricula card “is not an acceptable form of ID.” The US Department of Justice and FBI “have concluded the Matricula consular is not a reliable form of identification, due to no existence of any means of verifying the true identity of the card holder.”

The very life of American is in our hands. Let’s all stand up for our beloved America and be worthy of the name American.

Use this site to contact your Congressional Representative:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

SOURCES: http://www.westchestergov.com/boe/images/MailRegFormSpan11.pdf http://www.fishkill-ny.gov/pdfs/voteformspanish.pdf http://www.election.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/download/voting/spanishvoteform.pdf http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress03/mccraw062603.htm

Suzanne Eovaldi is a retired reporter and Journalism School Professor from the Chicago area now living in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Yesterday’s Rasmussen Presidential Index had Obama at – 14

This day in history March 14
1794: Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin which perpetuates the failing system of slavery in America.

Have you read this week’s “Betcha didn’t know this..” page? It’s loaded with interesting little “bite size” items you’re bound to enjoy.

Comments on this or any other Collins Report essay can be sent to kcoachc “at” gmail.com