Wrong Ballots, Broken Machines: Voting Issues Plague NYC Primary
New Yorkers voting in Tuesday's primary elections are already reporting issues at poll sites across the city.
By Maya Kaufman, Patch Staff
Brooklyn congressional candidate Paperboy Love Prince, who is challenging Rep. Nydia Velazquez, said he didn't receive the ballot for his own race.
Prince said he only received a one-page presidential ballot without any local or state races. Poll workers told him the ballot was correct, he said.
"They were so adamant about it I almost believed them," he said. "Then I thought I'm a candidate in the district I should be on the ballot."
A poll worker finally found a stack of ballots with Prince's race, and others, on it. Prince said he's since heard about similar issues across the city.
"At least 100 people have reached out with issues related to their voting," he said. "And it's only 1 p.m."
Some poll sites didn't open according to schedule, while others didn't have functioning equipment.
A voter on City Island in The Bronx told Patch that his local polling place, P.S. 175, [URL='https://twitter.com/jonparadiso/status/1275448389618987014']didn't open until 8 a.m. — two hours late.
At Lenox Road Baptist Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn, voters reportedly waited two hours to cast their ballot because both scanners were broken. They left their ballots in a lockbox to get scanned later.
The problems aren't limited to in-person voting: Nearly 30,000 voters who requested an absentee ballot had not yet received theirs as of last week, according to Gothamist.
Some voters, including some who are at high risk if they contract COVID-19, complained Tuesday that they never received a ballot to vote by mail.
@BOENYC I haven't received my absentee ballot for myself or grandmother. What are my options?
— Zenia M (@allsmilesbabe1) June 23, 2020
An immuno-compromised voter never received her absentee ballot. She received a card from BoE saying her primary day voting location had changed to what I know was her early voting site. Checking her address on your site showed no change. Why?@brigidbergin
— Kyle Church Cheseborough (@Cheseborough) June 23, 2020
.@BOENYC, Neither my mother nor I have received our absentee ballots. We are both high risk for COVID & haven't left since March 6 so we won't be able to leave to vote. Can you please let me know if there's any chance we'll get our ballots in time?
— Erika Sumner (@ErikaSumner) June 23, 2020
Spokespeople for the NYC Board of Elections and the New York Attorney General's Office, which runs a hotline to help voters with election issues, did not immediately respond to Patch's requests for comment Tuesday.
Asked about the voting issues during a Tuesday morning news briefing, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he hadn't received enough reports to get an "overview" of the situation but acknowledged New Yorkers' distrust in the agency that oversees the city's elections.
Year after year, New Yorkers "assume" there will be election problems, de Blasio said.
"I don't think the Board of Elections should continue in its current form," he said. "The way it's set up right now isn't effective enough."
https://patch.com/new-york/midtown-nyc/s/h5mf7/wrong-ballots-broken-machines-voting-issues-plague-nyc-primary
[/URL]
New Yorkers voting in Tuesday's primary elections are already reporting issues at poll sites across the city.
By Maya Kaufman, Patch Staff
Brooklyn congressional candidate Paperboy Love Prince, who is challenging Rep. Nydia Velazquez, said he didn't receive the ballot for his own race.
Prince said he only received a one-page presidential ballot without any local or state races. Poll workers told him the ballot was correct, he said.
"They were so adamant about it I almost believed them," he said. "Then I thought I'm a candidate in the district I should be on the ballot."
A poll worker finally found a stack of ballots with Prince's race, and others, on it. Prince said he's since heard about similar issues across the city.
"At least 100 people have reached out with issues related to their voting," he said. "And it's only 1 p.m."
Some poll sites didn't open according to schedule, while others didn't have functioning equipment.
A voter on City Island in The Bronx told Patch that his local polling place, P.S. 175, [URL='https://twitter.com/jonparadiso/status/1275448389618987014']didn't open until 8 a.m. — two hours late.
At Lenox Road Baptist Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn, voters reportedly waited two hours to cast their ballot because both scanners were broken. They left their ballots in a lockbox to get scanned later.
The problems aren't limited to in-person voting: Nearly 30,000 voters who requested an absentee ballot had not yet received theirs as of last week, according to Gothamist.
Some voters, including some who are at high risk if they contract COVID-19, complained Tuesday that they never received a ballot to vote by mail.
@BOENYC I haven't received my absentee ballot for myself or grandmother. What are my options?
— Zenia M (@allsmilesbabe1) June 23, 2020
An immuno-compromised voter never received her absentee ballot. She received a card from BoE saying her primary day voting location had changed to what I know was her early voting site. Checking her address on your site showed no change. Why?@brigidbergin
— Kyle Church Cheseborough (@Cheseborough) June 23, 2020
.@BOENYC, Neither my mother nor I have received our absentee ballots. We are both high risk for COVID & haven't left since March 6 so we won't be able to leave to vote. Can you please let me know if there's any chance we'll get our ballots in time?
— Erika Sumner (@ErikaSumner) June 23, 2020
Spokespeople for the NYC Board of Elections and the New York Attorney General's Office, which runs a hotline to help voters with election issues, did not immediately respond to Patch's requests for comment Tuesday.
Asked about the voting issues during a Tuesday morning news briefing, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he hadn't received enough reports to get an "overview" of the situation but acknowledged New Yorkers' distrust in the agency that oversees the city's elections.
Year after year, New Yorkers "assume" there will be election problems, de Blasio said.
"I don't think the Board of Elections should continue in its current form," he said. "The way it's set up right now isn't effective enough."
https://patch.com/new-york/midtown-nyc/s/h5mf7/wrong-ballots-broken-machines-voting-issues-plague-nyc-primary
[/URL]
