Supporters of Democratic state Senate candidate Andrea Stewart-Cousins claim her opponent, 10-term incumbent Nick Spano (R-Yonkers), is trying to prevent some voters from casting their ballots on Election Day.

Stewart-Cousins campaign officials revealed last week someone had challenged almost 6,000 voters who recently filed a change of address. Friday, civil rights groups backed Stewart-Cousins? call for the practice to stop. Andrew Stengel of People for the American Way says twice as many Democrats were challenged as Republicans. Stengel also points out that a third of the challenges involved minorities. Stengel says it all amounts to voter intimidation.

Spano says he never authorized any of the challenges to occur. In writing, he has asked the Board of Elections to not follow up on the request of challenges, which involves letters notifying the voter and a police officer possibly going to the voter?s home. Stewart-Cousins blasted Spano for changing his answers when questioned about the incident.

There has been no formal withdrawal of the voter challenges filed in part by lawyer John Ciampoli. Ciampoli served as Spano's attorney during the recount in the last contest between the candidates. So far, the Board of Elections has taken no action. Spano continues to deny he knew anything about the challenges in advance. Both campaigns say they will have voter hotlines set up on Election Day to report any instances of intimidation at the polls.

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