The Independent View: NYC and the ADA Restricting the Vote

First some history. Up to 2011, I voted 3 blocks from my home at the UN's International School. In 2012, I voted across the street at a church, The Church of the Holy Family, at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. In 2013, I will have to vote 9 blocks away.

I called the New York Board of Elections to find out why this change was made. So here is how the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA) comes into play.

New York City has been using a modified version of the ADA rules for selecting polling sites. This year a case was brought to enforce the stricter rules for the selection process and the city lost. This created the loss of many places previously used for polling sites.

As had been reported, the New York City Board of Elections took 17 days to count the Primary votes after using the old lever voting machines, which broke and caused around 80,000 paper ballots that where hand counted.

In my situation, the 73rd Assembly District (Eastside of Manhattan), there are potentially 99,098 registered voters. The polling site I will be using is a school that will have two gyms to accommodate 27 Election Districts representing 54,594 possible voters.

So I asked my front desk on how the owners' of my condo reacted when they saw the sign about the new polling place. They indicated at least half said the inconvenience caused them to not take part in the Primary. Some said it was out of their way before work and some said after work.

So with a low turnout of just 22% of voters taking part in the Primaries and the reduced polling places, the city found a new way to suppress the vote.

With the Supreme Court decision to halt Section 5 (Preclearance) of the Voting Rights Act, three Boroughs of New York City did not have to get Justice Department approval for the reduction and selection of the new polling places.