Ahmadou Diallo, a candidate for Male District Leader in the 79th Assembly District has filed a lawsuit seeking to have the will of the voters who voted for him counted and respected. The emergency hearing will be held tomorrow, July 2, in Bronx Supreme Court by Judge John R. Higget.
Diallo who was listed on the ballot for the 79th Assembly District was involved in a contentious fight to remain on the ballot. Diallo was first removed from the ballot in the lower court, then victorious and reinstatated in the Appellate Court, but lost the final battle in the Court of Appeals. Read the Order To Show Cause at the end of the article.
Diallo was unaware of the Court of Appeals decision handed down on May 21, and continued with his campaign since the New York City Board of Elections provided him with the ballot, listed him on all the absentee ballots, early voting ballots, emergency ballots, affidavit ballots, military ballots, and in-person election day ballots.
The New York City Board of Elections further failed to inform the voters of the 79th Assembly District that Diallo was disqualified resulting in voters voting for Diallo.
According to an article in today’s The African Journal, there is a lot of confusion as to why Diallo was on the ballot but not included in the final election results.
The Order To Show Cause filed by Diallo’s attorney, Angel Cruz, states Diallo is seeking:
“a declaratory judgment which direct the Respondent Board of Elections to count the “write in” votes for petitioners and determining the validity of all ballots and votes, including but not limited to, all election day paper ballots (including scanned ballots and non-scanned hand-counted ballots), emergency ballots, absentee ballots, affidavit ballots, special ballots, federal ballots and military ballots cast for the party position of male district leader in the Assembly for the 79’h District, voted for by the voters of the County of Bronx in the Primary Election held on the 23rd day of June, 2O2O”
When asked why is he fighting a legal battle against such a powerful institution such as the New York City Board of Elections, Diallo responded:
“The will of the voters must be respected. Every person who voted for me must have their vote counted. It is not fair and it is an injustice to disregard their vote because the New York City Board of Elections failed to remove me from the ballot and inform the voters that I am no longer on the ballot.
I am fighting because I am grateful to everyone who believed in me and cast their vote to elect me as their District Leader in the 79th Assembly District. They stood with me, voting for me to represent them. I cannot sit idly by while their right to vote for their candidate is being disregarded by the New York City Board of Elections”.