5-month vote-fraud case goes to the jury

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - Atlantic City Councilman Marty Small and others set out to steal the 2009 mayoral election by disenfranchising what one defendant called "loser voters," a deputy attorney general said Friday.

In his closing argument in the five-month, voter-fraud trial, Anthony Picione said the defendants manipulated and forged absentee ballots in the names of people they figured did not know the law and were unlikely to complain if they suspected something was wrong. He cited one of many recordings secretly made by a prosecution witness in which a defendant said the people being approached to apply for absentee ballots were "loser voters."

"People with language barriers, people who were not well-educated or not well-spoken, people who the defendants thought wouldn't fight back. People who the defendants thought didn't matter," Picione said. "The defendants' goal was not to involve them in the process but rather to take their votes."

Small, who was trounced in the June 2009 Democratic mayoral primary by incumbent Lorenzo Langford, had testified his campaign was trying to sign up new voters and open the political process to people whose voices are typically not heard.

"Make no mistake about it. You don't enfranchise someone by voting their ballot for them," Picione said. "It becomes your choice, not theirs."

He said many voters were not told they were applying for messenger absentee ballots, designed for people who were too sick or were confined to their homes on Election Day and therefore unable to make it to a polling place.

"Many were shocked to be told later that ballots had been submitted in their name," Picione said.

He cited the testimony of numerous witnesses who said they had been approached by Small's campaign to fill out the absentee ballots even though they were not sick or confined to their homes. In fact, Picione said, some of the solicitations occurred in the Atlantic County Board of Elections building when people walking the halls were approached and asked to "just sign here and here."

Messenger ballots have long played an outsize role in Atlantic City elections, often determining the result long after polls closed. Candidates would routinely go to bed on election night thinking they had won, only to be surprised the next day to find out they had lost once all the absentees had been counted.

The political machine of former Council President Craig Callaway perfected the use of absentee ballots, routinely collecting hundreds upon hundreds. The tactic continued even after Callaway was sent to federal prison for a bribery conviction, as well as his role in a sex video blackmail case against a council rival who had crossed him.

In the days leading up to the 2009 primary, Langford raised the alarm when nearly 1,000 absentee ballot applications flooded into Atlantic County offices in this city of just 23,000 registered voters.

Langford said if that many voters were truly ill, "we have a major health emergency here in Atlantic City."

In comparison, Newark - New Jersey's largest city with more than 134,000 registered voters - had just 23 applications for messenger ballots in its 2009 primary.

Two of the 14 defendants charged in Small's current case have pleaded guilty. The remaining dozen are being tried in groups of six.

Small was acquitted of similar charges in 2006 involving a mayoral election in which he was not a candidate.

Picione also briefly addressed a central contention of Small's lawyer: that the prosecution's case is based solely on the word of a cocaine dealer looking to cut a deal and shorten his prison sentence. Eddie Colon had faced a 20-year prison sentence, but a plea deal he reached with prosecutors could see him serve as little as six months behind bars.

Colon, who secretly recorded telephone and in-person conversations with Small and other defendants, was told the only way he would get the deal was by telling the truth, Picione said.

"You heard that Mr. Colon made a deal to keep himself out of jail," Picione said. "Mr. Colon is going to jail. It's not Mr. Colon's words that are the most damaging to the defendants' case. It's their own words."

Closing arguments concluded Friday afternoon. The jury is expected to begin deliberations Monday.