Nicole Torres, 44, a former Republican elected district leader in The Bronx and employee of the NYC Board of Elections (BOE), was sentenced on Sept. 2 to two years in prison for extortion and fraud federal prosecutors announced the same day.

 

Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said Torres was sentenced for participating in conspiracies to commit extortion and mail fraud by illegally demanding payments from Bronx residents in exchange for selecting them as poll workers, and by agreeing with others to falsify documents to make it appear that certain individuals had worked as poll workers when they had not.”

 

He said Torres previously pled guilty on April 17, before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, who imposed the sentence. “For years, Nicole Torres abused her power to corrupt one of New York City’s most fundamental democratic processes,” said Clayton. “By shaking down Bronx residents and falsifying election records, she undermined trust in the very system New Yorkers depend on to make their voices heard.”

 

He added, “New Yorkers can and should rely on the integrity of the election process, and public officials who contaminate the process and betray this city and its people will be held accountable.”

 

As previously reported and as detailed in public filings and public court proceedings, “From at least 2019 through at least 2024, Torres was a district leader for New York’s 81st Assembly District in the Bronx, which broadly covers some or all of the northwest Bronx neighborhoods of Norwood, Woodlawn, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge, North Riverdale, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Mosholu, and Fieldston. It has been represented by Democratic Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz since 1994.

 

In addition, the court heard that from at least 2016 through at least 2024, Torres was a BOE employee. Prosecutors said that while working at the BOE, she had at times been responsible for ensuring that poll workers were paid for their work during early voting and Election Day. They said she abused her power as a district leader and an BOE employee to engage in two illegal schemes.

 

They said that first, from at least 2019 through August 2024, Torres agreed to require, and required, Bronx residents to pay a sum of money, usually $150, either to her or to a local organization (the “Bronx Organization”) in exchange for her selecting those residents as poll workers for upcoming elections.

 

They said both the Bronx Organization and Torres profited from the scheme and that Torres personally obtained at least $28,000 in illegal payments. They said she received the payments, often in the amount of $150, through mobile payment applications, money orders, and checks.

 

In certain instances, Torres received money orders or checks that were written out to the Bronx Organization, and Torres altered the payee line on the same money orders or checks to say “Nicole Torres” in order to deposit the money into her personal bank account.

 

Second, the court heard that from at least 2018 through August 2024, Torres agreed to falsify the Election District Forms Booklet, which is a BOE record in which poll workers record their attendance at a particular poll site, to make it appear that certain individuals (the “‘No Show’ Poll Workers”) worked as poll workers during early voting and Election Day.

 

Prosecutors said that this was when, in truth and fact, and as Torres well knew, those individuals did not work on those dates. They said they often worked with coordinators who oversaw the Forms Booklets at specific poll sites and frequently, the coordinators signed in “No Show” Poll Workers in the Forms Booklets, at Torres’s direction.

 

They said Torres and her co-conspirators then received the salaries for the “No Show” Poll Workers, sometimes through the mail, and split the fraudulently obtained salaries among themselves.

 

Based on her participation in the two schemes, they said Torres personally earned at least approximately $40,970. In addition to her prison term, Torres from The Bronx was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay forfeiture of $40,970.

 

According to reporting by The New York Times, workers who spoke with The Times allegedly said the scheme ran much deeper than the charges detailed in the indictment and “their accusations follow years of trouble inside the city’s elections board, which has grappled with a host of problems including nepotism and sexual harassment.”

 

Meanwhile, Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the NYC Department of Investigation. The case is being handled by the public corruption unit of the Office of U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District of New York. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Benjamin M. Burkett and Rebecca T. Dell led the prosecution.

 

Norwood News readers had weighed in with their reaction to news of the indictment last year.