![\"\"](\"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/grok-image-14696adc-2b1c-4401-b1a3-55ce9ab4e913.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
What some conservative critics describe as the \u201cthing\u201d that Democrats claim \u201cnever happens\u201d just happened. Reports indicate an internal investigation has concluded that a Long Island, N.Y., school district clerk improperly handled ballots during a board of education election, prompting officials to seek the results\u2019 reversal and raising the possibility of criminal charges.<\/p>\n
Media reports note that according to a 51-page petition filed by the Hempstead Union Free School District with the New York State Education Department, District Clerk April Keys allegedly removed official ballots from her office and provided absentee ballots to incumbent school board candidate Victor Pratt, who investigators allege discarded them.<\/p>\n
Observers point out the district is asking state officials to invalidate the results of the May 19 trustee election, in which Pratt narrowly won another term.<\/p>\n
Pratt, a third-term trustee and former president of the school board, also performs as a local DJ under the stage name \u201cDJ Vic-Lover,\u201d according to his public social media profiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Board of Education Trustee election must be overturned because widespread irregularities affected the outcome of the election and were so pervasive that they vitiated the electoral process,\u201d the filing from the Hempstead school district\u2019s attorneys said.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
Reports indicate the petition, filed on June 15 and made public Thursday, asks New York State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa to invalidate the election results and order a new vote.<\/p>\n
The district also requested that a replacement clerk oversee the election and that the New York Attorney General\u2019s Civil Rights Bureau monitor the process, observers note.<\/p>\n
The school district launched an internal investigation after officials identified what they described as significant irregularities in the election for the unpaid school board trustee positions, the\u00a0New York Post<\/i>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n
According to the district\u2019s investigation, Pratt won the election by 81 votes after receiving an unusually high share of absentee and early mail ballots.<\/p>\n
\n
Reports show investigators found that although Pratt finished third in votes cast on voting machines, he received 87% of absentee ballots and 55% of early mail ballots.<\/p>\n
Other candidates, by comparison, each received fewer than 100 absentee and early mail votes combined, analysts point out.<\/p>\n
Media reports note three days after the election, the district placed Keys on administrative leave.<\/p>\n
\n
Later that day, Superintendent Gary Rush entered her office and, according to the petition, discovered a large cafeteria-style trash can containing a tied garbage bag that investigators considered unusual and potentially relevant to the inquiry, the\u00a0Post<\/i>\u00a0noted.<\/p>\n
According to the district\u2019s petition, Superintendent Gary Rush discovered what investigators identified as official 2026 election ballots inside the garbage bag.<\/p>\n
The filing states that Rush immediately secured the clerk\u2019s office and ordered the locks to be changed.<\/p>\n
The petition further alleges that when investigators returned four days later, the garbage can had been removed.<\/p>\n
District officials claim custodian Owen Peters discarded the bag in an outdoor dumpster while a locksmith was replacing the office locks, said the outlet.<\/p>\n
According to the filing, Peters later directed investigators to the bag, which they found sitting in approximately one foot of standing water inside the dumpster, the\u00a0Post<\/i>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n
According to the district\u2019s petition, investigators recovered torn cast ballots for both Pratt and his leading challenger, Gwendolyn Jackson, along with shredded early mail ballot applications containing voters\u2019 names, addresses and signatures.<\/p>\n
The filing also says investigators found unused ballots and election tally sheets mixed in with the discarded materials.<\/p>\n
The petition further states that Jackson\u2019s campaign coordinator, identified as Allah Supreme Mathematics, told investigators he delivered approximately 120 completed early mail ballots to the district clerk\u2019s office on election night.<\/p>\n
However, the investigation found that only 79 of those ballots were ultimately counted, with no explanation provided for the missing 33 ballots, according to the filing.<\/p>\n
According to the district\u2019s petition, investigators also reviewed security footage that they say showed the custodian leaving Keys\u2019 office carrying a bag containing ballots.<\/p>\n
The filing further alleges that Keys instructed the custodian on how to avoid being caught while removing the materials.<\/p>\n
According to the petition, surveillance footage from the night before the election allegedly shows Pratt arriving at the district clerk\u2019s office carrying a manila folder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York School Clerk Allegedly Tore Up, Trashed Ballots to Help Preferred Candidate What some conservative critics describe as the \u201cthing\u201d that Democrats claim \u201cnever happens\u201d just happened. Reports indicate an internal investigation has concluded that a Long Island, N.Y., school district clerk improperly handled ballots during a board of education election, prompting officials to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitolpulsed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}