John O'Hara

Who is John O'Hara?

John Kennedy O'Hara is an American lawyer, active in Brooklyn, New York politics. He is also the first person convicted of illegal voting in New York State since Susan B. Anthony was convicted for voting in 1872.

The son of working-class Irish Americans and the first in his family to go to college, O'Hara's interest in politics was clear even in childhood: at the age of seven he wrote to his congressman complaining that he didn't have the right to vote but was still required to pay sales tax on toys. At the age of 11 he worked on George McGovern's campaign in the 1972 presidential election. At 16, his investigative reporting for his school newspaper resulted in the school principal being fired for lacking the appropriate license for his job.

As a teenager and young man, he was involved with Brooklyn's Reform Democrats against the Meade Esposito machine. In the 1990s, he ran for office six times in primary election never winning but coming within a few hundred votes in a 1992 election for New York State Assembly.

In 1996, O'Hara was charged with running for office and voting from a false address.