Democrat respect for elections and honesty.

Pols in 'dead' heat

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

New York Dems reallyaredie-hards.

Three dead city residents from the same East Village housing complex rose from the grave last month to sign petitions in a hotly contested race for party positions.

Alfred Elkan, a German-born social worker, died in 1999, but on June 16 his ghostly signature appeared on a petition supporting Linda Belfer and Jeff Galloway, two allies of powerful Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver who are running to be district leaders in his 64th Assembly District.

The signatures of David Stone and George Karnet, who died in 2006 and early 2011, respectively, also mysteriously appeared, according to city records.

Deceased Dems usually tell no tales, but those and other discrepancies were noted by a rival party organization that hopes to knock Belfer and Galloway out of the Sept. 13 primary.

Belfer, the incumbent district leader, and Galloway, a lawyer with Hughes & Hubbard, are part of the Lower Manhattan Democrats, a club formed in 2009. The two broke away from the older Downtown Independent Democrats when that group didn't endorse Silver's preferred City Council candidate.

Now the rival Downtown Independent Democrats are backing longtime Silver foe Paul Newell for district leader over Galloway, and Jenifer Rajkumar over Belfer.

Newell, a community activist, in 2008 mounted a strong primary challenge to oust Silver, forcing the incumbent to bring in Democratic honchos like Hillary Rodham Clinton to campaign for him. The race was particularly contentious because Newell was vocally supported by two women who had accused a former Silver aide of rape and condemned the speaker's handling of the allegations.

Five living residents in the same East Village complex as Elkan, Stone and Karnet have also signed affidavits stating that their signatures were forged on the Belfer and Galloway petitions.

Those affidavits, along with death certificates of the dead men, and numerous other allegations of forgery, fraud and other irregularities are part of a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court by a member of the Downtown Independent Dems.

The challenges to 596 of the 997 names submitted for Belfer and Galloway were also filed with the city Board of Elections. A candidate needs 500 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

"If there's fraud, it must be stopped," said Jeanne Wilcke, president of the Downtown Independents.

The bulk of the suspect names were gathered over one June weekend by a mom-and-daughter duo paid $12.50 an hour, according to BOE records.

"As far as I know, the signatures were all valid," a bleary-eyed Kim Statuto, 51, told The Post last week.

She denied copying names of dead people from the mailboxes at the East Village complex, where Elkan, for one, is still listed.

Statuto said she and her daughter, Deidra, have gathered signatures for years on "too many politicians to remember."