Fake Voters Swung Election in Brian Maher's Own District
Why some local and national Republicans are ignoring actual voter fraud in New York State
You’ll have to excuse me, in the span of about an hour yesterday, four fairly major (local) news stories all broke at once. Here’s what I’m looking into…
-Monroe Town Supervisor Maureen Richardson appearing at a Town Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) meeting and giving the impression that she’s speaking in support of a wealthy real estate developer, Joel Mann. Supervisor Richardson denied this when asked by The Monroe Gazette. After sharing our questions with the Supervisor we are going to email questions to the current Planning Board Chair, Bonnie Franson based on Richardson’s answers. Then we’ll run that story. You can see Supervisor Richardson speak at 1:05:05 in the video below. We want to make it very clear that Joel Mann and his partner are some of the worst developers in our area, and every opportunity Monroe residents have to lawfully obstruct and delay their efforts should be employed.
(For the record, there is usually a Town Board liaison that attends these meetings. On occasion, they do speak before the board. But I agree it's unusual for a Town Supervisor to be doing that. I personally think it's kind of stupid. You don't want to say anything that could come back to haunt the Town in the form of a lawsuit. Especially given the track record of Ziggy Brach and his developer friends to file frivolous lawsuits.)
-Trust Fund Nepo Baby—and local Nazi—Jay Westerveld is at it again. This time intentionally taking documents out of context and trying to con people into voting against the proposed Preservation Tax that’s coming up for a vote over in Chester. Some of you may know Westerveld as the grandson of the man responsible for developing much of Sugar Loaf, as well as a man currently under investigation for failure to provide his alleged not-for-profits Form 990s—which you must provide under federal law upon request.
Why is he spreading disinformation? Mr. Westerveld no longer seems to actually live in or around Chester, but owns a tiny postage-stamp-sized property. (Mr. Westerveld made the following post using one of his many fake organizations, because that’s what a man who doesn’t finish college and shills for his fellow wealthy real estate developer friends does these days. They make fake organizations and then repeat their talking points. And this is the man who claims to have invented the term Greenwashing …
-There are rumors of mass resignations at the Monroe Village Building (and Code Enforcement) Department because Mayor Alex Melchiorrie wants to smooth the way for Lipa Deutsch, Avrohm Flor, and their friends.
We have just placed two major Freedom of Information Law requests (FOILs) with the Village of Monroe, and have requested comment from the Village Planning Board and Building Department. We wanted to know from the Village Planning Board if Mayor Melchiorrie is bullying and harassing them in the same way he’s alleged to be doing so with the Building Department.
This is pretty serious. And proof that all the people crying in these local Facebook groups about the state of Monroe aren’t serious, because if they were, and they actually cared about the future of the community, they’d be VERY LOUDLY discussing Alex Melchiorrie.
But they don’t.
Because Mr. Melchiorrie is friends with Dorey Houle and former Town Supervisor Tony Cardone.
Hence why you wake up every morning to posts on every Monroe Facebook group with stuff like “SUPERVISOR MAUREEN RICHARDSON IS THE WORST LEADER OF OUR TIME!”
And then there’s the fourth story … Pay attention to this one.
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Some of you remember Brian Maher. He’s the New York State Assemblyman—District 101—who, so the story goes, talked ICE out of setting up a concentration camp at 29 Elizabeth Drive in the Village of Chester. Within his Assembly district. If you’re following The Monroe Gazette, you’ll know ICE appears to have set its sights on 800 Corporate Boulevard in the Town of Newburgh, which is, you guessed it, not in Mr. Maher’s District.
(The story goes that the existence of the bog turtle was enough to keep ICE from wanting to get involved with the property in the Village of Chester. Neither ICE and DHS representatives nor Assemblyman Maher would comment on or confirm that story.)
On Wednesday, July 29, Assemblyman Brian Maher posted the following message on Facebook,
“New Yorkers deserve to have confidence that our elections are fair, secure and protected. What happened in New Jersey is deeply concerning, and while there is no evidence that the same issue has occurred here, we shouldn’t wait for something to go wrong before asking questions. The assemblyman believes we have a responsibility to be proactive, make sure the proper safeguards are in place and give New Yorkers the transparency and peace of mind they deserve.” [Emphasis added.]
Maher is referring to a story you might have seen recently on the news:
But here’s the thing. Fake, or otherwise non-existent people, voted in South Blooming Grove’s 2025 elections. I know. I have all the voter information for the people Joel Stern allegedly registered to do so.
Enough of them, potentially, could have been the reason Mike Essig is the Republican representative for Orange County District 5 (which includes our friendly neighbors in Woodbury in addition to SBG) and not Stephanie Powell, the Democrat.
Had Powell won, it would have meant, for the first time in forty-something years, that Orange County’s legislator had a Democratic majority, but that didn’t happen… because of honest to god voter fraud.
This voter fraud happened in Brian Maher’s district, which includes the Village of South Blooming Grove.
WTF, Brian?
Some of you may also know that the Monroe Gazette has repeatedly reached out to Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House for comment on this legitimate case of voter fraud in a “Blue State” that they’re constantly trying to mess with. (There’s no such thing as Blue States and Red States. There are states where you can vote, mostly, without issue, and states where you can’t. Guess which ones the red ones are?)
The White House has gotten back to us on other stuff. But not this one. Nor has Speaker Johnson. So, I have to ask you all a question: With all this noise about voter fraud, and the scaremongering happening that the national Republican Party wants to use to pass the SAVE Act—or, more likely, claim an emergency in November and then say, “Well, you should have passed the SAVE Act. You didn’t. Now look at all this fraud we made up!”
Why won’t they talk about an honest-to-God village in Upstate New York where, since at least 2023, free and fair elections have not been held?
Hell, Kash Patel’s FBI has known about South Blooming Grove since 2022. We know because of FOIL’d documents from Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler’s office.
Where’s Kash Patel on this thing?
So I asked Brian Maher’s press representative, Kaity Ward:
“I was hoping you might be able to clarify something here, because I do not recall ANY letter by Assemblyman Maher, nor fellow signatory Assemblyman Karl Brabenec, concerning the phantom election held in South Blooming Grove in the Fall of 2025, which was reported to AG Letitia James, which she has (again) failed to act on.
I say again because Mrs. James’s office is well aware of the situation in South Blooming Grove. First because a resident sued her over her inaction after NO election was held in 2024, and again because Senator Skoufis sent a letter on behalf of the NYS Senate standing committee on Investigations and Government Operations at the end of last year [concerning the 2025 election.]
So, given that there is a factual pattern of electoral fraud happening in the Village of South Blooming Grove dating back to 2022—and involving at least one known FBI investigation as reported by the Times Herald Record at the time—I am requesting an explanation from Mr. Maher as to why he has not demanded answers from Attorney General James about her lack of action concerning the complete systemic failure of the electoral system in this village.
Something that, by the way, involves signing up fictitious people to vote in elections held in South Blooming Grove, and who’s votes determined the outcome of the Orange County legislators raise between Stephanie Powell and Mike Essig. Had the fake votes not been counted, Mrs. Powell would be representing her constituents right now.
This leaves me with the impression that State Republicans only care about election fraud when it doesn’t benefit them, which this letter would indicate.
When will Mr. Maher call for an investigation into the electoral fraud happening in South Blooming Grove?
If any of these people legitimately cared about voter fraud, Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein would be in jail—probably facing charges over one of the largest and longest-running attempts to subvert the vote of over 3,000 people since at least 2023.
But there doesn’t appear to be any charges coming. Instead, Letitia James is writing puff pieces for The Nation—and they continue to write puff pieces about her—about what a great defender she is for election integrity.
And your local Republicans, like Brian Maher, faced with little else to offer you, are legitimately ignoring the actual voter fraud happening literally under his nose, so he can help scaremonger on behalf of the national Republican party.
You either care about voter fraud, or you don’t.