Almost 100 people gathered in a Brooklyn Heights church last night to express their frustrations and share their stories about the voting process in New York City. Voters and elected officials alike responded to each other in a people’s hearing at the First Unitarian Church. There was an equal mix of groans, head shaking and even hysterical laughter as people talked about their experiences at the ballots just a few weeks ago.
It was well documented that people in NYC had to wait up to several hours to vote, albeit for different reasons . A common one being that at least one scanner was broken in multiple voting sites.
Modernizing the election process and making it easier for people to vote were the main issues discussed. One man was accused of voter fraud because, according to the worker who had the book with everyone’s names, his signature did not match his previous one. He had to do it three times and show his driver’s license before they gave him his ballot. Another man was given two ballots, but he didn’t vote twice.
Others at the people’s hearing also worked at polling sites on Nov. 6 and said the training, assistance and testing were abysmal. “The exam after the training is only 20 questions and is open notes,” said one woman who worked at a Brooklyn polling site.
A big part of these complications, according to Let NY Vote’s executive director, Susan Lerner, is an outdated system. “The last election laws were written in the 1930s,” she said. “It’s very behind and slow. Automatic registration and early voting are the way to go.”
People also complained about getting conflicting information from workers and indifferent responses when they asked for assistance. Better training for poll workers was one of the main points of emphasis at the event. Lerner said NY State’s Board of Elections is very underfunded.
According to its website, NY State’s B.O.E. has less than $12 million available for election operations, which includes training its polling site workers and volunteers. The recommended budget for reapproprations is almost $42 million, and that’s in addition to the roughly $11.5 million already in place.
In addition to scarce resources, an increasingly divided political landscape and tensions are spilling over to the ballots. “Under normal circumstances, we had deficient election systems,” said Minister Kirsten John Foy. “Under these circumstances, that can be fatal.”
—
Let NY Vote is a grassroots organization working toward making elections in NYC accessible to all New Yorkers. They want to accomplish automatic registration, early voting, flexibility to change political parties closer to election day and pre-registration for 16 and 17 year-olds in time for the 2020 presidential election, among other things.