Bloomberg Claims Election Fraud In New York City Primary

New York, NY (AHN) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is claiming that fraud was the reason Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) received no votes in 80 districts in the state.

"If you want to call it significant undercounting, I guess that's a euphemism for fraud," Bloomberg was quoted by the New York Post on Tuesday.

Stu Loeser, the mayor's spokesman, is also cited by Politico as saying the allegation is part of Bloomberg's campaign to wrest control of the New York's Board of Elections from the Democratic party.

"Certainly, if the system for administering elections was based on competence (and if the special-interest induced gridlock in Albany hadn't prevented the State from certifying new machines some time in the last 40 or more years), someone might have noticed that there's a problem where Sen. Obama apparently got no votes in areas where he clearly had a lot of support," Loeser is quoted as saying in an email.

New York was the second-biggest Super Tuesday prize this primary season after California. Obama received 40 percent of all votes, while Clinton won with 57 percent. This translated to 94 and 179 delegates to the two respective Democratic hopefuls.

Bloomberg, a prominent Democrat who won as a Republican in the city's 2001 mayoral elections, has had to repeatedly deny that he is planning to make an independent presidential bid this election. He is listed by Forbes as one of the world's richest men.