ALBANY – State Senator James Skoufis (D, Cornwall) is urging State Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the Village of South Blooming Grove’s election.
In recent weeks, he has investigated village residents, many of whom were completely unaware of the October 22, 2025, village election. Several have alleged voter suppression and intimidation by local officials.
“The picture that continues to emerge is alarming: mounting violations of Village Law, Municipal Home Rule Law, Elections Law, Open Meetings Law, and more, unequivocally pointing to South Blooming Grove officials undermining free and fair elections on October 22,” he said.
He pointed to a number of issues he uncovered:
- In an October 24, 2025, phone call, a village official revealed the true motivation behind the date change: “the short answer to why we changed from March to October: There was a lot of people on the outside trying to do a lot of shit…we did everything that we had to do…we made our research and it [October 22, 2025] was less time for anyone to organize to bring in a yeshiva here…the main reason why is all the yeshivas are still closed in October. And I want to keep it at that.” It is well known in the village that a significant portion of the Jewish community is oppositional to current leadership. The admission reveals the election date was changed because yeshivas in the community were closed, shutting off an avenue for rivals to communicate about the election and thereby suppressing voter turnout.
- A special meeting to initiate an election date change from March to October was unnecessarily called and done so with one hour’s public notice consisting of a flyer physically posted to village hall.
- The current mayor and trustees are operating under legally suspect, altered term durations. Additionally, elections that were required to be held in recent years were not administered.
- A change to the village’s designated official newspaper was made under false pretenses — to a weekly newspaper with readership on the other side of the county — in order to publish state-required election notices that would not be read in South Blooming Grove. Further, state law requires a notice be published at least four months prior to an election; their notice was not published in a timely manner, a clear violation of law.
- Village board meeting minutes were omitted from their website for five months — starting exactly with the meeting at which the board began the process to change election dates. Only after an investigative inquiry from his office did the village begin back-posting minutes.
- The senator’s office received reports of village officials making calls to residents identified as supporters, encouraging them to request absentee ballots and subsequently hand over blank ballots for said officials to fill in.
- No mention of the referendum or election was made on the village’s website, social media accounts, emails, text messages, automated calls, or mailers.
- State law requires a recording of the meeting whereby results are canvassed and certified. Despite repeated attempts to procure a recording, it appears none exists.
Skoufis has referred all documents to the attorney general’s office and is urging her to initiate a quo warranto proceeding to invalidate the election.
“Residents of South Blooming Grove have had enough. Despite officials’ efforts to the contrary, this village cannot be allowed to operate as the Wild West any longer,” he said. “We are a nation – and a state – of laws. Robbing voters of their most fundamental democratic right is an unacceptable act, and village residents deserve nothing less than the truth alongside free and fair elections.”
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