When an unheralded candidate for the State Assembly submitted a six-figure request for matching funds under New York’s new public campaign finance system, it came with glaring red flags. Of nearly 300 contribution cards turned in by the candidate, Dao Yin, only nine had donors’ phone numbers or email addresses as required under the system’s guidelines. But in April, the board threw Mr. Yin a lifeline, allowing him to submit copies of “good-faith letters,” documenting his supposed attempt to obtain the missing information from the donors. The board soon sent him $162,800 in matching campaign funds, the eighth-highest amount awarded to a State Assembly candidate running this year. The board said no other state candidate has used the good-faith letters; neither Mr. Yin nor regulators provided any evidence that he had sent them to any of the donors in question.

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Persons: Dao Yin, Yin’s, Yin Organizations: State Assembly, New, Campaign Finance Board, The New York Times, Assembly