A lobbyist working for the company believed to have the edge to win a multimillion-dollar contract to replace the city’s lever-operated voting machines was once embroiled in a flap over ballot fixing.
Anthony Mangone, a Westchester-based lawyer and lobbyist hired to help Election Systems & Software, testified that he tampered with ballots in a voting-fraud criminal case against a political operative working for then-state Sen. Nicholas Spano (R-Westchester) in 2002.
Mangone was called by prosecutors trying Dennis Wedra Sr. on charges of masterminding a ballot-fixing scheme to help Spano win third-party primaries. Having the minor-party lines increased Spano’s chances of holding his seat in the general election in 2000.
Mangone testified that he opened up about 30 Green Party ballots, filled them in, “sealed them up” and then had them sent to the Board of Elections, the Journal News reported at the time.
Spano won the Green Party primary by a thin margin, but lost his seat years later.
Mangone — who declined comment — was never indicted, and Wedra was acquitted.
ES&S is facing off against Dominion, a Canadian company. A decision is expected by the Board of Elections tomorrow.
ES & S has been given the edge in a staff scorecard based on a checklist of criteria, but the 10 commissioners — all political insiders — could end up tossing the recommendations.
ES & S has hired powerhouse lobbyists Hank Sheinkopf, Norm Adler and Davidoff & Malito, while Dominion has Greenberg Traurig and Bronx megalobbyist Stanley Schlein, who had been head of the city’s Civil Service Commission, but paid a fine to the Conflicts of Interest Board in 2008 for allegedly misusing that office’s resources for his own legal work.