Samuel L.

Rivers
30 Rockledge Avenue ! Mount Vernon, NY 10550 ! (914) 760-8136 t. ! (914) 517-2841 f. ! samuelrivers@gmail.com


Chief, Voting Section
Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Room 7254 NWB
Washington, DC 20530

VIA: FACISIMILE and ELECTRONIC MAIL

May 9, 2014

Dear Sir or Madam:

I respectfully request that the United States Department of Justice send Federal election
monitors to monitor the upcoming School Board election for the Mount Vernon City
School District to be held on Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Federal Election monitors were dispatched to the City of Mount Vernon in 1988 during
the Presidential election and dispatched to Westchester County in various other
elections. I respectfully ask that this honorable agency focus on voting, ballot counting
procedures and voter intimidation.

On May 5, 2013 an article appeared in The Journal News, regarding voter fraud during
the 2012 School Board election. (Exhibit A).

The report in the The Journal News mentions there were several instances of fraud
during the 2012 school board election. Once such instance of fraud is where a person
who died several years earlier voted in the 2012 school board election.

During the election I was able to capture images, that are attached, of an election worker
looking through the voter registration rolls on her personal laptop and then telephoning
third parties from the poll and relaying said information. The image is attached.

The same worker was then observed on video go into the voting booth and instruct the
voter whom to vote for. The video can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwYnFj56XKU

While watching the video, you will hear a conversation between myself, Rev. W.
Franklyn Richardson of Grace Baptist Church and Bishop Collie N. Edwars of Friendship
Worship Center. These two individuals have admitted their roles of involving
themselves by running and supporting candidates for school board elections for the past
20 years. Such actions by are against the law.





Samuel L. Rivers
30 Rockledge Avenue ! Mount Vernon, NY 10550 ! (914) 760-8136 t. ! (914) 517-2841 f. ! samuelrivers@gmail.com



The Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by
Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely
prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political
campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.
Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or
written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate
for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign
activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt
status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and
circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting
public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan
manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other
activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as
voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not be prohibited political
campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner.

On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that
(a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or
(c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute
prohibited participation or intervention.

For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully request Federal Election monitors from your
honorable agency to preserve the integrity of the upcoming election.


Respectfully Submitted,
Samuel L. Rivers
Samuel L. Rivers
cc: United States Attorney General, Eric Holder

cc: United States Attorney, Preet Bharara

cc: Press
Vote fraud alleged in Mt. Vernon
Author: Rauch, Ned P
Full text:
MOUNT VERNON -- In 2008, Derek Scott, of 315 S. Ninth Ave., died of
colon cancer.
In 2012, he voted in the Mount Vernon school board election.
In that same election, Dyanan Jaikaran, a candidate, appears to have
voted twice. And another voter used a city-owned tennis shed as his
address.
A group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Mount Vernon is claiming the
2012 school vote was rife with fraud and has sent letters to the U.S.
Department of Justice and state attorney general requesting monitors for
this year's election and budget vote.
"We have a school board election coming up, and we want a fair and level
playing field for all candidates," said Maria Caraballo, one of the group's
members.
Caraballo ran for the board last year, losing by 144 votes. The other three
candidates on her slate lost, too. One, Adriane Saunders, is running again.
"We're hoping that they hear our plea and send monitors," Caraballo said.
She said her group compared two years' worth of voter lists -- the logs
containing the names and addresses voters give when they show up at the
polls -- and said they found dozens of red flags: non-existent addresses;
names and addresses that didn't correspond with public records; deceased
residents whose names appeared on the lists.
The group's letter claims people were "picked up in the Bronx ... and
transported to polling stations, using names of persons that had not voted
in years." The group also claims poll inspectors yelled at and intimidated
some candidates and poll watchers.
A review of documents obtained by The Journal News showed that in
some cases, the group's concerns were unfounded: Votes they thought
were fraudulent appear to be legitimate. But the review did uncover
instances of phantom addresses, duplicate names and, in at least one
case, a dead voter.
On the list for District 12, the line for voter 59 is filled with the name Scott,
Derek M., and the address 315 S. Ninth Ave. Scott's mother, Daisy, said
he lived there before he died in 2008 at the age of 42. Daisy Scott still
owns the property.
"There's no Derek Scott living there. Not my Derek Scott," she said.
Asked what she thought of her son's name turning up on the voter list, she
said: "It shouldn't have appeared on it. I don't know who could have signed
his name."
The list for District 9 presented another mystery. The address for voter 93,
Lennox Dressikie, is listed as 431 Garden Ave. But there is no residence at
that address. Instead, a few steps from No. 429, a red mailbox with the
number 431 hangs from a chain-link fence surrounding the dilapidated
Memorial Field, which the city owns and has long promised to renovate.
Neighbors said 431 is the address of a decrepit building set back from the
street among knee-high weeds that used to serve as an office for the
athletic facility's tennis courts. It was never a home.
Attempts to reach Dressikie, a part-time city worker, were unsuccessful.
In several cases, addresses that appeared on the voter lists could not be
matched with a building.
In District 4, voter 35 is listed as Michael Spruill, of 52 W. Fourth St. When
a reporter visited that address, Joseph Camp, a retiree, answered the door
and said Spruill, a cousin of his wife, was in the military and hadn't lived in
Mount Vernon for years, though he visits now and then. Referring to the
name on the voter list, Camp said, "I don't know who that Michael Spruill
is."
And then there's the case of Jaikaran, the former candidate, who,
according to the voter list, appears to have at least partially followed the
old Election Day trope to vote early and often. His name appears on lines 2
and 11 of the District 4 list.
"Nope, I did not vote twice," said Jaikaran, who shared the slate with
Caraballo. "And I don't think there's anybody else with my particular name."
Both entries on the list are paired with his current address.
"It tells you that they were committing fraud," he said. "I don't know who,
but somebody was."
Like municipal elections, school elections rely largely on the honor system,
as voters are not required to show a photo identification at the polls.
Interim schools Superintendent Judith Johnson, who was appointed two
months after the election, said, "I know nothing about what happened last
year."
Board President Frances Wynn, a former teacher who was elected to the
board last year, could not be reached for comment.
Caraballo suspected the 2012 vote was flawed almost as soon as the polls
closed. In the days following the vote, she requested the voting machines
be impounded. The school board denied the request.
She's not running this year and said she is unsure who might be behind
the fraud she and Concerned Citizens are alleging.
She said she hopes state and federal authorities will hear her plea.
"I expect the same thing's going to happen if we don't get marshals in all
the polling stations," Caraballo said. "We want it to be fair for all parties in
all elections."

Subject: Candidates; Fraud; School boards; Local elections
Company / organization: Name: Department of Justice; NAICS: 922130
Publication title: The Journal News
First page: 1
Publication year: 2013
Publication date: May 5, 2013
Year: 2013
Section: A
Publisher: Gannett Co., Inc.
Place of publication: White Plains, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1348569245
Document URL:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1348569245?accountid=34585
Copyright: Copyright 2013 - Journal News, The White Plains, NY - All
Rights Reserved
Last updated: 2013-05-06
Database: Gannett Newsstand