The Independent View: NYC BOE Fixes Gaffe in Another Mass Mailing

The New York City Board of Elections (BOE) is correcting its correction, and the cost to taxpayers is growing.

At the urging of Eric T. Schneiderman, the State’s Attorney General, the BOE last Thursday mailed yet another batch of postcards to more than 42,000 newly registered voters, reminding them of next week’s Presidential Primary. The cause for the last-minute reminder was a series of mailings from the BOE that were either incorrect or incomplete.

It all started a few weeks ago, when the BOE sent a routine notice to about 60,000 newly registered voters, confirming their registration. But the notice included an incorrect date for a State and Local Primary election scheduled for September.

When officials spotted the gaffe, they decided to mail a postcard with a correction. But the terse note, which reached voters last month, said the correct date “for the Primary Election” was Sept. 13, without clarifying which Primary was being mentioned.

Since the notice arrived just a short time before the State’s Presidential Primary, which will occur on April 19th, good-government advocates warned that some voters could be confused and miss their chance to cast a ballot.

Some people responded angrily online, even suggesting that election officials may have deliberately sought to keep voters away from the polls.

Officials initially played down the mistakes. But on April 5, Mr. Schneiderman sent a letter to Michael J. Ryan, the BOE's Executive Director, saying that the mix-up “may have misled eligible voters and could prevent their participation” in the Primary. He asked for “immediate corrective actions.”

The BOE agreed to send out a new postcard to the 42,989 newly registered Democrats or Republicans who were eligible to vote in the parties’ Primaries.

Valerie Vazquez, a BOE spokeswoman, said the new postcard notified voters of Tuesday’s Presidential Primary, told them polls would be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and included directions for finding their polling place.

The original corrective postcard cost about $200 to print and $21,215 to mail, Ms. Vazquez said. She said Thursday’s postcard cost less than $200 to print and $14,616 to mail.

The latest correction comes after the BOE revealed last month that it had spent $208,579 on overnight international postage to send new absentee ballots to 4,131 voters abroad who had received a ballot that was missing the Spanish translation of a key phrase.