Rockland Post

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:  Ciro Riccardi |  ciro@lawlerforcongress.com | (845) 642-6569      Pearl River, NY — 4/22/2026… Last night, Democratic congressional candidate Effie Phillips-Staley filed a sworn Verified Answer in Rockland County Supreme Court that concedes fraud was rampant on her designating petitions. In a last ditch attempt to stay on the ballot, her filing asks the court to disregard the fraudulent signatures and count what’s left.  Under well-established New York State election law, when a designating petition is “permeated with fraud”, the entire petition is invalidated — not just the fraudulent sheets. (See Matter of Ferreyra v. Arroyo, 35 N.Y.3d 127 [2020]; Matter of Proskin v. May, 40 N.Y.2d 829 [1976].)  Lawler For Congress’s Verified Petition and Bill of Particulars laid out a staggering scope of widespread fraud. Thirty sworn voter affidavits attesting to forged signatures, multiple witnesses testifying to fraud across the petitions of at least six canvassers, and 1,127 separate technical objections the Answer doesn’t address. “Effie Phillips-Staley just signed her name to a sworn filing conceding that her Democrat petition is permeated with fraud. The law stipulates her entire petition should be thrown out, and every one of her canvassers must take the stand and answer under oath for the fraud committed in her name as ordered on Monday. New York law is clear: when fraud permeates a petition, the whole thing goes,” concluded Ciro Riccardi, Campaign Manager.