NASSAU COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, MINEOLA--The Scaturro campaign is filing 629 “Opportunity to Ballot” petition signatures with the Nassau County Board of Elections today--well over double the 265 required to ensure a write-in line for Scaturro on the June 24 Conservative Party primary ballot.

In 2012, 55% of Conservative Party members voted for Scaturro in the primary, giving him the election victory by a historic write-in vote.  No candidate in New York's recent history had ever won a write-in victory in a district as large as New York’s 4th Congressional District--which has over 717,000 souls.

Frank Scaturro also won more votes in the 2012 general election on the Conservative Party ballot line than any Fourth District congressional candidate since 1986.

The New Hyde Park resident’s successful petition campaign overcame efforts by his opponent to keep him from getting the number of signatures required to qualify for the June 24 primary.

A March 13 Newsday article entitled "Nassau GOP leaders target Scaturro petition signatures" reported:  “Executive leaders of Nassau’s GOP Committee … recently received a memo asking them to seek the same ballot petitioning signatures that Republican Frank Scaturro got two years ago on his way to winning the Conservative Party primary….  Nassau GOP official, Jerry Marino, told fellow executive leaders to ‘concentrate immediately’ on Conservative Party ‘opportunity to ballot’ petitions supporting Blakeman. He attached a file listing the names and addresses of the roughly 300 people who signed the same petitions for Scaturro in 2012.“

The article quoted Mr. Marino: “Since we have an exclusive window to obtain these signatures (Frank CANNOT until March 25th), it is our opinion that we can take his signatures. This will make it extremely difficult for him to obtain the necessary amount.” Moreover, as with the Republican petitions collected for Scaturro and filed last week, many who otherwise would have circulated petitions for Scaturro did not do so out of fear of losing government jobs.

Many Conservative voters who carried or signed the Opportunity to Ballot petitions expressed outrage at these efforts to close the polls to them--particularly given that they occurred at the behest of another party's boss in order to ram through a candidate with liberal leanings and a fiscally reckless record and to block any path for the candidate Conservative voters chose in 2012.  Fortunately, the scheme did not work, so there will be a primary election for Conservatives on June 24. Scaturro stated, "This is a triumph for democracy, and it would not have been possible without the dedication of so many Conservative voters who went to their neighbors to restore the people's role in the process so we can take our country back."