Petition for the Opportunity to Ballot Not Demonstrated to Have Been Permeated by Fraud
The Second Department determined that a petition for the opportunity to ballot was not so permeated with fraud to justify granting a petition to invalidate it:
As a general rule, a petition for an opportunity to ballot will be invalidated on the ground of fraud only if there is a showing that the entire petition is permeated with fraud … or, if not permeated with fraud, where a potential candidate who stands to benefit from the validation of the petition for an opportunity to ballot has participated in or is chargeable with knowledge of the fraud … .
Here, the petitioners did not sustain their burden of establishing by clear and convincing evidence that the totality of the instances of forged signatures on the subject petition for an opportunity to ballot rose to the level at which it could be said that the petition was permeated with fraud … . Matter of Steinert v Daly, 2014 NY Slip Op 04206, 2nd Dept 6-11-14