A stunning election scandal is unfolding on Long Island after a school district clerk was accused of secretly removing ballots, destroying election materials, and helping tip the scales in an extremely close school board race.
The allegations, if proven, represent one of the most serious breaches of election integrity seen in a local New York contest in recent years and have prompted officials to seek an entirely new election.
Hempstead Union Free School District Clerk April Keys is accused of orchestrating widespread irregularities during the district’s May 19, 2026 Board of Education trustee election. According to findings cited in an internal investigation, Keys allegedly removed official ballots from her office, destroyed election materials, and improperly handled absentee ballots tied to incumbent trustee Victor Pratt.
Pratt, a three-term board member and former board president who also performs locally as DJ Vic-Lover, narrowly retained his seat by just 81 votes.
Now, district officials are asking New York State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa to throw out the election results entirely.
“The Board of Education Trustee election must be overturned because widespread irregularities affected the outcome of the election and were so pervasive that they vitiated the electoral process,” attorneys representing the district wrote in a filing seeking a new election supervised by an independent clerk and the New York Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau.
The controversy began after election results revealed an unusual voting pattern.
While Pratt finished only third in Election Day machine voting, he overwhelmingly dominated absentee and early mail ballots, receiving approximately 87 percent of absentee votes and 55 percent of early mail ballots. Other candidates reportedly received fewer than 100 absentee and early mail votes combined, raising questions that ultimately triggered the district’s investigation.
Just days after the election, Keys was placed on administrative leave.
That same evening, Superintendent Gary Rush reportedly entered her office and made a startling discovery. According to investigators, he found a large garbage bag inside a cafeteria-style trash can containing official 2026 election ballots.
Rush immediately secured the office and ordered the locks changed.
The investigation took another dramatic turn several days later when the garbage can had disappeared.
According to court filings, district custodian Owen Peters admitted he had removed the bag and thrown it into an outdoor dumpster. Peters later cooperated with investigators and directed them to the discarded materials, which had been sitting in standing water.
Investigators reportedly recovered ripped ballots cast for multiple candidates, shredded absentee ballot applications displaying voters’ names, addresses, and signatures, unused ballots, and election tally sheets.
Perhaps most troubling, campaign officials for challenger Gwendolyn Jackson claimed they delivered 120 early mail ballots to the clerk’s office on election night, yet only 79 were ultimately counted. District investigators say no satisfactory explanation has been provided for the missing ballots.
Security footage has also become a central part of the investigation.
According to the district’s filing, surveillance video allegedly shows Peters removing the bag from Keys’ office. Investigators further claim Keys instructed the custodian to avoid a particular staircase because security personnel might question why he was carrying the bag.
The filing also points to surveillance footage from the evening before Election Day that allegedly shows Pratt entering the clerk’s office carrying a manila folder and remaining there for roughly 90 minutes.
Investigators say the video appears to show Pratt leaving with what they describe as approximately 125 absentee ballot envelopes.
When questioned about the footage, Pratt reportedly said he did not remember possessing the envelopes, did not know what they contained, and could not explain what became of them.
The allegations have already prompted calls for criminal charges and renewed debate over election integrity, even in local contests that often receive little public attention. While the investigation remains ongoing and no criminal convictions have been secured, district officials argue the reported irregularities were so extensive that public confidence in the election has been fundamentally compromised.
If state officials agree, Hempstead voters could soon find themselves returning to the polls for a do-over in one of New York’s most controversial local elections in recent memory.
