The ballots of four wealthy New York Democrats were yanked yesterday after they admitted they set up a temporary house in Ohio and then voted in the battleground state.
The New Yorkers and nine pals from around the country admitted they should never have registered in the Buckeye State, said prosecutors, who had investigated the group for possible vote fraud.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, the 13 said they were sorry and had “misunderstood” the state’s voting rules.
“Without reservations, we apologize to the community [and] for the problems this misunderstanding has caused,” said Greg Nolan, spokesman for activist group Vote from Home.
The Post reported Monday that the group is run from the East 82nd Street brownstone of Heather Halstead, daughter of Halstead Properties founder Clark Halstead.
Halstead and her husband, Marc Gustafson – along with Bank of New York Mellon exec Joel Speyer and former New York Sun reporter and Scarsdale resident Daniel Hemel – and their pals were investigated after they crammed into a three-bedroom house in Columbus and registered to vote.
All of them cast Ohio ballots, even though they are already registered in New York.
The group used the home as the headquarters for its push to get voters to the polls in Ohio, where residents are allowed to vote a month before the Nov. 4 election.
Vote from Home’s multiple suspicious addresses at the rented home on Brownlee Avenue were uncovered by student reporters at palestra.net, a Web site run by Fox News. Under Ohio law, temporary residents are not allowed to register or vote in the state. All permanent new residents must live in the state for at least 30 days before an election to be eligible to cast a ballot.
The Columbus 13 inked the throw-out-the-vote deal with Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Ron O’Brien after days of talks.
O’Brien said yesterday he found “no evidence of criminal intent” and will not pursue charges.
Nolan said that “we did not understand the state’s technical definition of ‘resident.’ Our mistake was an honest one, but it was a mistake nonetheless.”
O’Brien said it will be up to the election boards in the group members’ home states to decide whether they can still cast ballots.