Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Richard P. Donoghue, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced today that special telephone numbers have been set up to receive complaints of possible violations of federal election laws relating to tomorrow’s primary election in New York City and other counties in their districts.
Their Offices will be available to receive complaints at the following numbers on Tuesday, June 23, 2020:
(646) 369-4739 (for Manhattan, Bronx, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, and Westchester counties) and
(718) 254-6790 (for Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau, and Suffolk counties)
In addition, complaints of possible violations of federal election laws may be made directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation at (212) 384-1000.
The Department of Justice has an important role in deterring election fraud and discrimination at the polls, and combating these violations whenever and wherever they occur. The Department’s long-standing Election Day Program furthers these goals, and also seeks to ensure public confidence in the integrity of the election process by providing local points of contact within the Department for the public to report possible election fraud and voting rights violations while the polls are open on Election Day.
Federal law protects against such crimes as intimidating or bribing voters, buying and selling votes, impersonating voters, altering vote tallies, stuffing ballot boxes, and marking ballots for voters against their wishes or without their input. It also contains special protections for the rights of voters, and provides that they can vote free from acts that intimidate or harass them. For example, actions of persons designed to interrupt or intimidate voters at polling places by questioning or challenging them, or by photographing or videotaping them, under the pretext that these are actions to uncover illegal voting, may violate federal voting rights law. Further, federal law protects the right of voters to mark their own ballot or to be assisted by a person of their choice.
The franchise is the cornerstone of American democracy. We all must ensure that those who are entitled to the franchise exercise it if they choose, and that those who seek to corrupt it are brought to justice.
The United States Attorneys also noted that the following additional telephone numbers are available for citizens to call for routine inquiries, such as where to vote or how late the polls are open, or to register complaints that may concern violations of New York State election laws:
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