In a super-tight Republican primary in Brooklyn, where 16 votes separated winner from loser, Rose J. Chiara’s absentee ballot deserves an extra layer of scrutiny.

She had last voted 17 years ago, in the 2008 presidential primaries. She was 94 then, and would be 112 today, had it not been for her death in 2013.

The recent vote in Ms. Chiara’s name in an otherwise obscure City Council primary is one of a number of ballots that appear to be fraudulent, leading to growing calls for a criminal investigation.

“It’s a hustle. It’s a scheme. It’s a subversion of democracy,” Joseph Chiara, 80, Ms. Chiara’s son, said after being told of his mother’s supposed vote. “I think it’s a horrible crime.”

Ms. Chiara is one of at least three dead people who had ballots cast in their names in the contest, according to records and earlier reports. Several other suspicious votes came from people, very much alive, who say they had no idea their ballots had been cast. For whom, no one could say.

The number of potentially fraudulent ballots — over two dozen so far — exceeds George Sarantopoulos’s margin of victory over Richie Barsamian, chairman of the Kings County Republican Party, in the District 47 race in southern Brooklyn.