Assembly prepared to vote against seating Brooklyn Republican over residency question
In an extremely rare move, the Democratic-led state Assembly is preparing to vote against seating the Republican winner of an Assembly race in Brooklyn, Lester Chang, because he may not have moved into the borough one year prior to the election as required by law.
Earlier this month, Chang defeated longtime Democratic incumbent Peter Abbate in Southern Brooklyn’s 49th District 52% to 47%.
“He voted last November in Manhattan where he lives,” said Abbate. “And that would give him six days to say he moved, but he didn’t register to vote in King’s County until February of this year.”
By law, Chang would have to have lived in the district for one year. But because of redistricting this year, he only has to have lived in the borough. If his home is in Manhattan, he would not meet the requirement.
This issue first came up in September when the political club Asian Wave Alliance endorsed Chang over Abbate, who raised the issue. The club then called Chang back for a review.
“We asked him ‘would you be eligible to be the assemblymember should you be elected?’” says the Club’s founder Yiatin Chu. “And he said yes. We didn’t ask him to show us any proof. We have to ask the question for him to affirm that, and he did.”
According to documents obtained by NY1 News, Chang registered to vote at his Brooklyn address earlier this year, as alleged by his opponent.
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/11/30/brooklyn-republican-lester-chang-assembly-vote-unseat-special-election?cid=app_share?cid=share_clip