A group of Russian-speaking Brooklyn voters has gone to federal court with a class action lawsuit against the New York City Board of Elections. Dora Danishevskaya, Moisei Zilberman, Mikhail Zeltsman, Ada Coton, Lev Krivoshein and other plaintiffs are charging the Board with direct violation of their civil rights.

In the press release obtained by the Russian Forward, lawyer Mitch Alter points to the numerous problems encountered by Russian-speaking Democrats during the primary elections for the New York 46th State Assembly District in September 2002 and for the 47th City Council District in September 2001. Specifically, the lawsuit cites illegal movement or closing of polling sites, election inspectors’ refusal to provide paper ballots for voters (who are entitled to this right), and mistakes made in the spelling of Russian-speaking voters’ last names that ultimately deprived them of their right to vote. Furthermore, all Board of Election forms given to our immigrants, regardless of age, were in English, unlike those provided for voters of Chinese or Latin American origin.

This past Monday, a rally took place on the steps of City Hall to support demands for the class action lawsuit. The main speaker at the rally was Oleg Gutnik, Republican leader from the 46th Assembly District. In front of journalists from several American TV channels and newspapers, he declared that the Russian-American community could not tolerate further violations of its rights. If the lawsuit is successful, then even the next elections (this year for the New York City Council) will be more open and honest.

War veterans, several election campaign volunteers and election inspectors were among those present at the rally outside City Hall. Unfortunately, not one city or state politician or one Board of Elections official came out to meet those gathered.