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High Ranking Democrat Suspended Without Pay for New York City Voter Purge

voting booth
AP
May 6, 2016

Officials at Brooklyn’s board of elections suspended its top Democrat on Thursday, citing a "mysterious purge" of 126,000 Democratic voters from the city’s rolls.

Brooklyn deputy chief clerk Betty Ann Canizio-Aqiil was suspended without pay amid the city’s ongoing investigation into the removed voters, the New York Post reported.

Canizio-Aquiil, whose salary comes in at $120,000 per year, was the second official suspended as part of the probe.

The board suspended Brooklyn Chief Clerk Diane Haslett-Rudiano last month following New York’s April 19 primary election. The city is withholding the Republican’s $125,000 salary.

Last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio demanded that local officials explain why hundreds of thousands of Democrats were removed from the voting rolls during the past year.

De Blasio, a Democrat, told local radio station WNYC that was "concerned" about the large drop-off.

"This number surprises me," de Blasio said last month. "I admit that Brooklyn has had a lot of transient population–that’s obvious. Lot of people moving in, lot of people moving out. That might account for some of it. But I’m confused since so many people have moved in, that the number would move that much in the negative direction."

More than 100,000 Brooklyn residents were forced to vote by affidavit ballot because their names were missing from the voter roles, according to the New York Post.