It’s turned into a political whodunit.
Questions continue to swirl around an 83-year-old Long Island grandmother whose mysterious presence on the Working Families Party line in the Huntington supervisor’s race tipped the scales in the election with the voters who signed her petition nowhere to be found.
Public records show that the town employee listed as a witness on the party petition for granny Maria Delgado hasn’t lived at his listed Greenlawn address for at least four years — and the folks living there now told News12 Long Island they never signed it.
Meanwhile, the Huntington Manor fire commissioner, who also signed, has yet to turn up.
“Unless the law requires the board to invalidate a petition, it is deemed valid and the candidates named are placed on the ballot,” Suffolk County Board of Election commissioners John Alberts and Erin McTiernan said in a joint statement.
Delgado’s presence on the ballot caused a stir in the race because the Working Families line managed to siphon enough liberal votes from Democrat challenger Cooper Macco to give incumbent GOP Supervisor Ed Smyth, who won the seat in a squeaker.
Delgado initially told Newsday that she had no clue she was on the ballot, but then clammed up — while a man at her home this week implied she did know she was a candidate.
“She ran, she lost, and I’m proud of her,” the unidentified man said.
“We’re proud of her. No comment.”
Now everyone is ticked off — except town Republicans.
“The truth is straightforward: members of the Working Families Party selected their own slate of candidates instead of the Democrats’ preferred choices,” Huntington Town GOP Chairman Thomas McNally said in a scathing statement this week.
“The Democratic Party ran against them in June — and they lost,” McNally said.
“What we are seeing now is post-election spin and sour grapes.”
He said Delgado knew she was on the party’s ballot and voted in both the primary and general election.
However, the state Working Families Party isn’t too thrilled about the controversy.
“Republicans have tricked voters and hijacked the Working Families ballot line to skew the election results,” said Ana Maria Archilla and Jasmine Gripper, co-directors for the state’s Working Families Party.
“What happened in Huntington is proof that Republicans have little respect for our democracy and for working people who stand to lose so much with their disastrous policies.”
The Board of Elections, which ignored numerous requests for comment until The Post filed for access to the petitions, said that no objections were raised at the time Delgado’s petition was filed.
A spokesperson said there were only “curable” issues that were later fixed, and notified Delgado as required — but has no legal authority to investigate beyond that.
However, state Attorney General Letitia James’ office confirmed Wednesday that her office is reviewing the results of the elections but stopped short of calling it an investigation.
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