News 12 has learned an Orange County grand jury report that found absentee ballots were mishandled during a recent village election center around practices in Tuxedo Park.

An official source says the report was prompted by a civil lawsuit filed by the incumbent mayor at the time, David McFadden, who lost.

It claimed 30 people improperly requested and received absentee ballots without being registered and that some remained unregistered when they cast their votes. The litigation was later denied for being untimely for failure to seek judicial intervention within three days of the Board of Election’s ballot review.

The jury found the mishandling was due to the village clerk's inexperience rather than criminal intent and recommended moving village elections to November for better oversight and procedural improvements.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement about the findings:

“The Grand Jury found that the village clerk needed repeated guidance from the Orange County Board of Elections as to how to properly conduct elections {and that} that the litigation resulting from the election could have been avoided if the clerk had obtained the list of registered voters from the Board of Elections and checked that list against the list of those seeking to obtain absentee ballots. The Grand Jury found that the clerk acted in good faith but was simply inexperienced in handling elections. The Grand Jury also found that one candidate for office also had the ability to hire and fire the clerk, who was tasked with administering a fair and neutral election process, which created a situation which could result in voters doubting that the election was being conducted in a neutral manner, even without misconduct by any public official.”

“On behalf of the village, I’d like to thank the grand jurors and the two election commissioners for their hard work and professionalism. We transferred control of our elections to the county in December 2023 and we will consider changing the election date to November from our present election date in June," said Village of Tuxedo Park Mayor Marc Citrin.

To view the full Orange County grand jury report, CLICK HERE.