Tuesday, March 29, 2016

NY Voter Rolls Problems


Many New York voters have reported problems with their voter registration. It’s looking like New York voters may be seeing problems similar to Arizona.

For example, a voter shared that his wife changed from unaffiliated to Democrat in New York last year, long before the October deadline. She went online to check her status and found that she’s now listed as “Not enrolled in a party.”

Another commented that he and his wife had voted for Obama in 2008 and again in 2012. But the New York website now says that neither of them are registered, even though none of their information had changed. Another person reported that he registered in December 2015, got an approval email, had the voter registration card in his wallet, and online he was being told that he was not registered.

The more you look, the more stories are reported.

Another person said they had registered as a Democrat in New York in 2010 to vote in the primaries. He’s voted in every election since. Two weeks ago he checked his voter status and everything was fine. He wrote: “Fast forward to last night when I received three phone bank calls asking if I’ve registered, it made me check my eligibility. Guess what? My information was not there.” He went to the County Elections office to register again and was told that no one had any idea what had happened.

New York is a Closed Primary, so you can only vote within the party that you’re registered with. Voters in New York whose party affiliation was dropped were given an extension, through Friday, March 25, to change their party affiliation. Unfortunately, many reported technical issues when trying to change their party affiliation online.

Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Douglas Kellner (D) said that any New York voter whose party affiliation was purged or was inactive could re-register by the end of the business day on Friday, March 25, and still be able to vote in the Primary.

Registering online was also an option, the DMV would accept online registrations if completed before midnight on March 25. Unfortunately, many people reported technical problems with the DMV site on Friday.

If you’re were listed as inactive or unaffiliated, you can still change your registration, but it won’t help in time for the Primary.

Mar. 25th Primary deadline was only for those registering to vote for the first time or those changing their party affiliation if their affiliation was purged or if they were listed as unaffiliated/inactive. If you were registered as a Republican, for example, you couldn’t change your party to Democrat and vote in the Primary. That deadline was in October 2015.

If you were registered to vote in New York, these deadlines may still be applicable to you:

April 12 – Last day to postmark an application or letter of application by mail for an absentee ballot.

April 18 – Last day to apply in-person for an absentee ballot.

April 18 – Last day to postmark absentee ballot. It must be received by the local Board of Elections no later than April 26.

April 19 – Last day to deliver absentee ballot in-person to local Board of Elections.

But the current New York Absentee Ballot qualifications are: You cannot appear at the polls on Election Day because of an accident or sudden illness.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
Digg! StumbleUpon

No comments: