Following release of a Grand Jury report that raised serious concerns about absentee balloting practices in adult care facilities, Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon has written to county and state officials urging action to safeguard the voting rights of vulnerable senior citizens.

The Grand Jury report criticized the method by which absentee ballots mailed to some adult home and nursing home residents are "distributed, cast, collected, and returned to the school district or election district for final canvassing."

"I strongly believe that the practices which the Grand Jury found are deleterious to the integrity of the electoral system," Dillon wrote to county and state officials. He called the practices "a corruption hazard" conducive to "fraud and forgery" that "undermines public confidence in the basic honesty and fairness of the electoral system."

Specifically, the Grand Jury found that absentee ballots are not distributed to the addressee upon receipt at certain adult care facilities. Rather, persons from outside the facility, affiliated with a particular political party, are permitted to enter the facilities, meet with residents one-on-one, distribute their absentee ballots, and advise them on how to cast their vote. Those same outside persons are then allowed to collect the completed ballots and take responsibility for delivering them to the appropriate polling place, rather than having them mailed by the adult care facility. Some residents stated that they were not given the opportunity to choose not to vote, or to select a candidate of their own choosing. Instead, they were simply shown which candidate's box to check, and told to sign the envelope containing their completed ballot. Some residents neither understood the nature of the election, nor knew anything about the candidates.

The Grand Jury recommended that Nassau County implement procedures set forth in State Election Law Section 8-407 for absentee balloting in adult care facilities. These procedures would require the board of elections to provide absentee ballots to designated bipartisan inspectors, who would visit the adult care facilities at a date and time worked out with facility administrators. They would bring a portable voting booth and the absentee ballots, so that residents could either mark their absentee ballot or vote in the voting booth. A resident who is unable to mark his or her ballot would be able to receive assistance either from both members of the board of inspectors, or from another person chosen by the resident.

The Grand Jury called for state legislation requiring school boards to implement these procedures for their elections, and urged election authorities outside the county's jurisdiction to do likewise.

Until such time as the Nassau County Board of Elections adopts these procedures, the Grand Jury urged, it should direct adult care facilities to:

* distribute absentee ballots received by mail the same way it delivers all mail to residents;

* prohibit personnel from outside the facilities from entering the premises to assist residents in casting their ballots;

* ensure appropriate privacy and confidentiality for residents in casting their votes; and

* mail the ballots or arrange for employees of the facility to deliver them to the appropriate polling place, rather than letting outside persons collect and deliver them.

The Grand Jury also called on the Nassau County Board of Elections to "ensure that all persons who receive absentee ballots are in fact entitled to do so," and urged the New York State Board of Elections to review its process for determining a voter's competence and ability to vote.

In a letter to Nassau County Elections Commissioners Barbara Patton and John DeGrace, Dillon strongly endorsed the Grand Jury's recommendations. He urged them to "take the initiative to protect the integrity of absentee ballots and the rights of voters, particularly vulnerable residents of adult homes and nursing homes."

Dillon also wrote to the chairs of the State Senate and Assembly Elections Committees Senator Serphin Maltese and Assemblyman David Sidikman, as well as to State Education Commissioner Richard Mills and New York State Board of Elections Enforcement Counsel Stanley Zalen, urging them to take action in accord with the Grand Jury's recommendations.