NEWS FROM 45th ASSEMBLY DISTRICT ASSEMBLYMAN STEVEN CYMBROWITZ

Albany Office: Room 627 Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY 12248 Telephone: (518) 455-5214 District Office: 1800 Sheepshead Bay Road, Brooklyn, NY 11235 Telephone: (718) 743-4078

For Immediate Release:

July 6, 2012

Contact: Steven Cymbrowitz

Assemblyman Cymbrowitz Calls for Removal of Board of Elections General Counsel

Cymbrowitz Critical of Boards Refusal to Translate Voting Materials into Russian
Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn), outraged that the New York City Board of Elections is continuing to flout the law by not translating voting materials into Russian, today called for the immediate resignation or termination of the boards general counsel, Steven H. Richman. Yesterday, Cymbrowitz learned that Richman asked the Board of Elections to recommend that Governor Cuomo veto legislation (A10609) requiring New York and other large cities to print ballots and other voting materials in Russian. Cymbrowitz was the bills sponsor. Cymbrowitz demanded the counsels removal in a strongly-worded letter to Board of Elections president Maria Guastella. Mr. Richmans action comes after years of inaction. The Board of Elections has refused to abide by a 2009 law, which I fought for, requiring that voting materials be translated into Russian. As the Boards top legal official, he is responsible for his agencys failure to abide by the law, Cymbrowitz said. Now, with the Legislatures passage of stronger legislation I introduced, the Board of Elections would prefer to continue discouraging thousands of Russian-speaking New Yorkers from voting rather than developing procedures to comply with the 2009 law, Cymbrowitz explained. More

Cymbrowitz, Page 2 In his letter to Guastella, Cymbrowitz said recent events make it even more doubtful that the Board of Elections will comply with the law. Your non-compliance with the original law and your apparent distaste for the current bill, combined with the headline-making problems that occurred in recent elections, gives me serious doubt regarding your agencys commitment to properly and expeditiously meet its mandates, he wrote. As General Counsel, Mr. Richman must have clearly understood the 2009 law and its intent, yet he, the Board of Elections chief legal authority, chose to ignore it. This is both illegal and inexcusable and cause for requesting his immediate resignation, or if this does not occur, his termination, Cymbrowitz continued in his letter. Cymbrowitz reminded Guastella that, Our nations strength and stability emanates from its body of laws. Government officials cannot have the option of choosing which ones to abide by. In addition to calling for Richmans removal, Cymbrowitz urged the board in the strongest terms not to stand in the way of legislation that seeks only to bring more residents into the voting process. As public servants, we have an obligation to encourage civic participation, not discourage it. Cymbrowitz has been working with the Russian community and his colleagues in Albany for much of the past decade to make the translation of voting materials into Russian a reality. ######