16 voters face police residency checks 11 days before Pelham Manor election

Pelham Manor Police Department detectives visited the homes of 16 local voters on October 23, 2026.

The visits occurred 11 days before the general election and were conducted at the request of the Westchester County Board of Elections.

According to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request, Mark Cardwell filed all 16 residency challenge affidavits.

Cardwell, a Democrat who lost the 2025 mayoral race and the March 2024 trustee election, swore under oath that his claims were based on personal knowledge.

Several of the targeted voters reported they had never met or spoken with Cardwell prior to the police visit.

None of the 16 individuals subject to the residency checks are registered Democrats.

New York Election Law Section 5-702 mandates that the Board of Elections forward post-registration challenges to local police for investigation within five days.

During his failed 2025 campaign, Cardwell described the village as facing stubborn safety problems and chaotic streets with children at risk from traffic.

He also cited nuisance crimes such as car and ATM thefts as reasons police resources were handicapped.

The current residency checks required detectives to leave their primary public safety duties to cross-examine residents about their living arrangements.

This is the second time in two years that law enforcement has been deployed to investigate voting eligibility in Pelham Manor.

In October 2024, officers from the Westchester County District Attorney’s office visited homes to investigate absentee ballots from the March 2024 election, including those of sitting Trustees Tim Case and Breda Bennett. In that instance, none of the targeted individuals were registered Democrats. One resident fell to her knees in tears upon seeing officers at her door, fearing they had brought news of a fatal accident involving her child. That same year, absentee ballot challenges in the Board of Education election were filed by Katherine Pringle, Melissa Labonte, and Maura Curtin. They submitted screenshots of social media pages and minor league baseball statistics as evidence of residency issues, targeting almost exclusively non-Democrats. New York Election Law Section 1-104(22) and state judicial precedent permit voters with dual residences to choose where they register, provided they maintain legitimate and continuing attachments to that location. The current challenges were filed within two weeks of Election Day, a timing pattern repeated in previous years. Steven Shekane, a resident of 917 Washington Avenue, stated that deploying armed officers to inspect voter homes degrades civic trust. He noted that in 2015, a fraudulent anonymous report triggered a two-month privacy invasion for his family. The village has a population of 5,500.