Election Day Should Honor Our Vets

Turnout on Election Day was particularly dismal, with only 22 percent of registered voters deigning to cast votes in New York City as America’s premier one-party town became even more of a monopoly.

While the election might have been anticlimactic for city Democrats (and yet another disappointment for city Republicans), there was some drama to be had on the micro level.

Last month the usual monotony of the weekly New York City Board of Elections (BoE) commissioners’ meeting was broken when Manhattanite Judy Taber was recognized for the purpose of challenging the registration of a man she claimed had been falsely voting from her address for years.

After hearing Taber’s claim, BoE president Frederic Umane dutifully intoned, “Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the…”

Who is this man that the Board of Elections was compelled to investigate? I wondered.

Well, it turns out that man was Arthur A. Faiella, a 70-year-old twice-wounded Vietnam veteran.

A simple Google search turned up Faiella’s address, cell phone number, email contact and military service. (Who needs the NSA’s information gathering technology when you have Google?)

Faiella still resides in Taber’s Upper West Side building, but in an upper floor apartment. Since 1995 Taber has resided in his former apartment.

Like many New Yorkers, Faiella simply continued voting from his residential address without reregistering from his “new” apartment. Thus elections materials, jury notices, etc., continued to be sent to Taber.

For nearly two decades Taber has unsuccessfully fought with government bureaucracies, trying to end the yearly election fliers and notices mistakenly delivered to her mailbox.

Her nearly comical frustration with her building’s concierge, USPS letter carriers, local post office personnel, and Washington, D.C., bureaucrats finally led Taber to call the city Campaign Finance Board (CFB). It was a CFB employee who told her how and where to file a voter challenge.

A week before the hearing I had participated in poll watcher training and learned about the voter challenge process. The trainer spoke of the challenge oath and how it is administered.

For decades in New York City we have abided by an honor system. It is assumed that all persons appearing to vote were the duly registered voter they claimed. Signing and filing a fraudulent voter registration is perjury.

National Republicans have been making a fuss about voter fraud and the need for voter ID. To New Yorkers, it seems much ado about nothing, because poll workers have always been empowered to challenge persons known or suspected of not being entitled to vote.

Surely, given New York’s arcane and snafu-prone system, who would bother to show up to vote fraudulently?

I understand the frustration that prompted Taber to take the extraordinary action of challenging Faiella’s voter registration. But Mr. Faiella is no fraud. He courageously fought in Vietnam during one of the most intense periods of that war—1967 to 1968—while men who ducked the conflict taught me and my peers.

Faiella lamented that he resides in a city where his service is not appreciated. I assured him that I certainly do recognize his patriotism, in part because my uncles are also Vietnam veterans.

Unlike nearly 80 percent of New York voters, Faiella votes conscientiously in every election, because he believes doing so is essential to our nation, and a duty of citizenship.

Arthur Faiella didn’t opt out of Vietnam, and he certainly hasn’t opted out of casting his vote at every opportunity.

It should be noted that Faiella’s name was supposed to appear on a challenge list at his poll site, and that he was supposed to take the “qualification oath,” but in typical BoE fashion, nothing happened as it was supposed to.

Lastly, it is especially shameful that 8 out of 10 registered city voters sat out the recent election. Every eligible New Yorker should follow Faiella’s example and vote in every election. Blowout or not.

It’s the least we can do to protect our right to vote. It’s the least we can do to honor those men and women who safeguard our freedom and liberty.

Former Assemblyman Michael Benjamin (@ SquarePegDem on Twitter) represented the Bronx for eight years.