By Jim Scott
DNAinfo Reporter-Producer
Democratic city comptroller candidate John Liu is racking up more than voter support these days.
The Department of Sanitation has issued 7,840 tickets — totaling $588,000 in fines — to Liu's political campaign for allegedly putting up illegal posters around the city, the Post reported.
Plastering posters on city property is illegal and carries a $75 fine for each offense, even during election season.
The posters were put up on city utility poles, the center medians of roadways and telephone pole, said sanitation department spokesman Vito Turso.
"I'm assuming they are overzealous campaign workers," Turso told NBCNewYork.com.
Liu is liable even if he didn't physically hang the posters himself.
"The law states that if your name is on the poster there is a 'rebuttable presumption' that you authorized the placement," said Turso.
The sanitation department has had a hard time getting the summonses to Liu's campaign. Turso said they first tried to send a set of 302 summonses to a Liu campaign address provided by the Board of Elections, but they were returned as undeliverable, the Post reported.
The Sanitation Department said it will hand-deliver the first 302 tickets, plus another 1,261 more, to Liu's headquarters in Queens.
Liu campaign spokeswoman Juanita Scarlett told the paper the campaign hadn't been notified of a single violation as of Monday.
"Typically a campaign is notified when there are fines or penalties, and we have not received any notification about one violation," Scarlett told NBCNewYork.com.
Liu is not the only city candidate to rack up hefty fines for illegal posters. Turso said Public Advocate contender Bill de Blasio had nearly 2,000 illegal posters taken down by his department, adding up to about $150,000.
Liu will square off against Republican candidate Joe Mendola for city comptroller in the Nov. 3 election.
