NY Dem officials paid for votes to snatch third-party ballot line

Two Democratic Party officeholders are on trial in upstate New York for a scam that allegedly involved paying residents of Troy, N.Y. $10 each to register to vote, then forging their absentee ballots.

And there is a witness.

The scheme was apparently concocted to ensure local Democrats would win co-listing under the Working Families Party’s ballot line.

Jermaine Joseph, now attending college in Iowa, told jurors Wednesday that he was approached with an offer of $10 to register to vote. He said he never voted in the 2009 third-party primary, and read aloud the names of Democrats for whom election records say he cast his ballot.  Read more