Maria Delgado had 'no idea' she was Huntington supervisor candidate, as Democrats cry foul

The paper-thin margin in the race for Huntington Town supervisor has unleashed accusations of election hijinks and has left voters with a nagging question: Who is Maria Delgado?

Delgado, a minor-party candidate for supervisor, received nearly 3% of the vote, enough to have possibly swung the election in favor of the incumbent in one of the narrowest town races on Long Island.

Adding to the mystery, Delgado said Friday she had "no idea" she was on the ballot in the Nov. 4 election — though Newsday later learned that, according to Suffolk County Board of Elections, she voted in the election and in a June primary. 

Republican Supervisor Ed Smyth was reelected by 602 votes Nov. 4 over Democrat Cooper Macco, according to unofficial returns from the county Board of Elections. Delgado, 83, of Huntington Station, according to online voting records, received 1,195 votes, returns show.

Democrats have accused Republicans and conservatives on Long Island of raiding the minor-party line for political gain in the past, and say the tactic was employed again in this year's Huntington supervisor's race. Officials from the state Working Families Party said they were unsurprised but exasperated as their line continues to be used to dupe voters.

While Macco had won the Working Families Party endorsement earlier this year, Delgado qualified for the party's June 24 primary by collecting enough signatures. She defeated Macco in the primary, 109-26, denying him a second ballot line in Tuesday's election. 

Smyth's small margin of victory, and questions about Delgado's candidacy, have set off a political firestorm in one of Long Island's largest towns, which operates a $238 million annual budget and where Republicans have had complete control for several years.  

Smyth said he had nothing to do with Delgado's candidacy and that the griping amounts to postelection sour grapes.

Newsday interviewed Delgado outside of her Huntington Station home on Friday, along with her daughter, Linda Morales, who translated because Delgado speaks limited English. When a Newsday reporter shared that Delgado had appeared on the ballot, Maria Delgado burst into laughter. When Newsday shared the vote total, she laughed even harder.

“Oh my goodness,” Delgado said from the side door of her white cape-style home in Huntington Station. “I had no idea.”

Morales said her mother is “flabbergasted” and has no idea how she appeared on the ballot.

However, four days later, Newsday learned that Delgado voted in person in the election, according to board of elections documents. She also voted in person in the June primary, where her name was listed on the ballot, a board official said in an email.

Follow-up attempts to reach Delgado at home were unsuccessful. 

Longtime Republican

Through her daughter, Delgado said many years ago she registered to vote as a Republican. But about six months ago, they started receiving “letters” from the Working Families Party in the mail and headed to Huntington Town Hall because they were confused.

“I don’t remember the response, but we went to Town Hall because of the letters of that party you are talking about,” Morales said. 

Delgado said, through her daughter, that they were told to “disregard it.” Both women said they didn't remember who they spoke with at Huntington Town Hall.

“This is unbelievable, who registered her with that party?” Linda Morales said. “Is that a joke, or something?”

Need 5% to qualify

To qualify for a third-party primary, a petitioner must receive signatures from 5% of enrolled party members.

Suffolk Democratic Chairman Rich Schaffer said on the local level, Republicans and conservatives have co-opted the Working Families Party, which advocates for "social, racial, and economic justice" across the state as well as "progressive legislation," according to the state party's website. The party has advocated for stronger tenant rights, including changes to eviction laws, as well as rent stabilization measures and higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

"Maria Delgado is a shill candidate, and I’m sure she probably doesn’t even realize she’s a candidate," Schaffer said in an interview on Thursday. "What they did is meant to siphon votes from the Democratic candidate. ... It’s gone on over several cycles in Huntington. That’s one of the reasons why for years the major parties and some of the more minor parties have said that there needs to be election reform."

He said he did not know "what form that would be in, but we need to look at this because there should be people committed to the party they are running in.”

According to data from the State Board of Elections, about 650 Huntington Town residents are enrolled in the Working Families Party. Delgado would have needed more than 30 signatures of party members to qualify for the primary.

Those who don't share the views of the Working Families Party, which are generally to the left of the Democratic Party, have tried to exploit their ballot lines, said Aaron Shapiro, senior elections strategist for the state's Working Families Party.

The idea, he said, is "to confuse people who generally vote on the line with the expectation they are voting for someone who has the stamp of approval from a Democrat, progressive or independent," he said. “But as a registered member of the party, if they collect enough signatures, there is nothing we can do to deny them on the line of the primary."

If Delgado didn’t get the petition signatures to trigger the primary, it is not clear who did.

Smyth said he doesn’t know Maria Delgado and had nothing to do with her campaign. He said the time to discuss concerns was before the election.

“The members of the Working Families Party in Huntington rejected the Democrats' slate of candidates on June 24,” Smyth said. 

'A shame'

Officials from the Suffolk County Board of Elections did not respond to requests for comment about Delgado's candidacy and petitions for this story. 

Macco, 39, a bankruptcy attorney, said it was “interesting” losing the primary. He said he and his team reached out to about 100 town voters registered with the Working Families Party ahead of the June 24 contest. Most of them said they were unaware about the primary or that they were even enrolled in the minor party.

Still, Macco declined to blame his loss on Delgado's candidacy.

"It’s nice to see some outrage; but it’s very easy to say it would have changed the result," he said. "It’s a shame that it came down to that." 

 He added, “I’m very proud about how close this election was, and is, and it’s a shame that deals made outside the official process can possibly impact an election."

Huntington resident Lynne Connors, 68, said in an interview she was confident in the electoral process when she voted Tuesday.

But in the days since, that confidence has turned to disappointment. 

“We need to tighten up our procedures relative of how people get on ballots,” she said. “People need to be more aware about the deals going on behind the scenes, because it dilutes your vote and that’s all we really have anymore.”

Newsday's Yancey Roy and Joseph Ostapiuk contributed to this story.

NOTE: This story was updated to add that according to Suffolk County Board of Elections, Maria Delgado voted in-person on Nov. 4 and in a primary in June.