Election fraud lawsuit filed in District 20 Republican primary race

Dany Chen (left) filed a lawsuit against his opponent in June’s District 20 Republican Primary, Yu-Ching James Pai, alleging widespread voter fraud. Photos via campaigns

By Ryan Schwach

Dany Chen, the losing candidate in Queens’ only recent Republican primary, has filed a lawsuit against the winner of the race, Yu-Ching James Pai, and the Board of Elections alleging widespread voter fraud in the June election. 

Chen and his attorney, Aaran Foldenauer, are alleging that hundreds of absentee ballots were fraudulently requested and cast on behalf of legitimate voters in the Flushing district without their knowledge. The plaintiffs are not just calling for those ballots to be thrown out – they’re calling for a new primary election to be held. 

“​​Votes were cast by persons who signed the polling place registration book but were not, in fact, the duly enrolled voter whose name they signed,” Foldenauer’s petition, filed on July 5, reads. 

The lawsuit argues that a large number of voters – “hundreds,” as Foldenauer claims – tried to submit a vote on election day, only to find they had already voted by absentee ballot when they had no recollection of doing so.  

“Shortly after the election, my client started hearing from voters who woke up on election day and wanted to do their duty and went out and those voters went to the site, and they were told, ‘Wait, you've already voted via absentee ballot,’”  Foldenauer said. 

Court exhibits filed by the attorney contain 39-pages of affidavits from voters who say that they never requested an absentee ballot but were told that one had been requested in their name. 

“Voters rights were taken away by false absentee ballots, registrations and false votes,” Chen, who lost the election by 168 votes, told the Eagle. “The voters did not request the absentee ballot and someone cast a vote in their name fraudulently.” 

“Voter integrity is a big issue,” he added. 

Foldenauer also says that 68 percent of the votes cast in the June primary in the district were from absentee ballots, and that the majority of the absentee ballots requested were returned, both abnormally high numbers compared to the city’s average. 

“That’s an astronomical number,” he said of the number of absentee ballots, comparing it to the 2021 mayoral election, where only 10 percent of ballots were filed via absentee. 

“The fact that over two-thirds of ballots were cast via absentee ballot is an extremely high number compared to other New York City Council districts in the June 27, 2023 primary elections and thus indicative of fraud,” Foldenauer said in his petition. 

Pai’s attorney, John Ciampoli, filed a motion to dismiss the case, which was rejected by Queens Supreme Court Judge Robert Caloras. 

Ciampoli called the lawsuit a “weasel hunt” and “fishing expedition” in his motion to dismiss. 

“They've gone and run through the streets, crying fraud, the pleadings don't cite a single instance of fraud,” Ciampoli argued in a phone call with the Eagle.

As for the affidavits Foldenauer filed, Ciampoli argues that they should have been included in the petitioner’s original filings, and he accuses them of utilizing the court to do their own investigation. 

“They're now trying to use the court as a substitute for the administrative process,” he said. 

He also believes the people who signed them may not have known what they were signing. 

“The bottom line here is they’re not going to reach the threshold they need to reach,” he said. “Put more succinctly, they've got nothing.”

Foldenauer says the only remedy in the case is to call another election, which he thinks would come sometime in September, should the court find it necessary.  

Regardless, whoever the Republican nominee is would face incumbent Democrat Sandra Ung in the general election for a district where 56 percent of voters are registered Democrats. 

The case will be heard again at a conference on Wednesday, with a potential trial sometime in the following weeks. 

Pai himself, as well as the Board of Elections did not respond to comment before presstime.