Last week, the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association received registration letters indicating Bart Blatstein deserved a vote for each of his Tower Investment firm's partnerships. (While Blatstein has a lengthy list of partnerships that list 969 N. Second St. as an address, bylaws afford nonresidents with a business stake in the neighborhood a single vote.) The thought goes that Blatstein, of Liberty Walk and countless other projects in the city, wants to prevent a vocal critic from gaining a seat on the 15-member NLNA board which he often needs to go before.

"I don't know why any rational individual would" register to vote 55 times in an election of this size, says NLNA president Matt Ruben, "unless he wanted to influence the outcome."

Some members speculate that he's trying to prevent Hilary Regan, a 24-year-old community activist who has pushed government agencies to better monitor Blatstein's cleanup of industrial waste from the old Schmidt's Brewery site, from winning a board seat.

Blatstein, however, says he never intended to vote more than once; the 55 different letters he submitted were merely a response to a number of e-mails and flyers the group circulated encouraging local businesses to participate.

"There's no push to manipulate anything," says Blatstein, who called Ruben after he was interviewed for this article to assure him he would only vote once.

Whatever the motive, the incident and subsequent reaction point to how strained the relationship between the developer and the community group is. Blatstein angered some residents of Northern Liberties last year by his slow response to neighborhood calls for community involvement in the brewery site cleanup plan.

Ruben, who did not dispute Blatstein's right to vote 55 times under the association's current election rules, says his group would likely amend its bylaws after tonight's election to prevent one person from having the potential to cast so many votes.

"We may have to change the bylaws to ensure future elections can be conducted in the spirit of our organization, which is 'one person, one vote,'" Ruben says.