City Election Officials Work Towards A Smoother November Voting Day
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As the Board of Elections voted to removed its own executive director on Tuesday, city election officials worked to avoid on Election Day the problems that plagued voters on Primary Day. NY1's Roger Clark filed the following report. For some voters, Primary Day was not the most pleasurable experience.
"You have like people standing behind you, around you, and you don't feel comfortable," one female voter told NY1 back in September.
It was just one of many complaints about the new voting system that replaced the old lever machines used in the city for years.
Since September, a paper ballot has been used, which is reminiscent of filling out a test form in school. The ballot is put into a machine and the vote is registered.
Board of Elections officials admitted Primary Day was not a smooth run, but they hoped for problems to be smoothed out for Election Day next Tuesday.
"We immediately launched retraining for coordinators, so that each coordinator who is responsible for a poll site is able to make sure that the poll workers give enough privacy to the voters when they vote on Election Day," said Bronx Republican Elections Commissioner J.C. Polanco.
The BOE, according to Polanco, is working with the Department of Education and city police to make sure that every poll site is open on time, something that was not the case on Primary Day.
"We want to make sure that the systems are ready to go, that we have back-up systems in case they don't work," said Polanco.
At least one group observing the election is hoping for the best. One hopeful observer is Lawrence Norden, the senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, a public law institute which is representing several groups suing the city and state Boards of Election over some of the new procedures.
"Certainly I think the Board has publicly noted that it has taken stock in what happened. They've had some additional training, so I'm very hopeful that many of the problems we saw during the primary we won't see again," said Norden.
Some local voters told NY1 they were expecting at least some confusion next Tuesday.
"I hope it's better but they have a long way to go," said a voter.
"In the past, it was easy enough to read, you'd get a big dummy ballot. It's different now. I'm not encouraged," said another.
"I'm sure they'll work hard and try and do the best they can, but it seems like the problems always persist, so let's hope they do the best they can," said a third.
For more information on voting, call 1-866-VOTE-NYC or visit vote.nyc.ny.us.