The Executive Director, Michael Ryan, of the New York City Board Of Elections (NYCBOE) says "that people who were not supposed to be voting had protested by trying to vote and no one was disenfranchised, what we did see was a concerted effort by some folks to apparently, to protest New York’s closed primary process by showing up to vote when they weren’t registered to vote. We tracked down dozens who say they were disenfranchised and as it turns out, they weren’t registered in the parties that they were trying to vote for.”
Ryan acknowledged that more than 100,000 voters were removed from the voting rolls in Brooklyn. But, Ryan said, that was done as part of regular maintenance to remove inactive voters from the books.
Ryan said, "I don’t believe there were disenfranchised voters in Brooklyn." He said he visited various polling locations Tuesday and "What happened on the ground just doesn’t bare out that there was mass disenfranchisement of voters in Brooklyn."
While more than 100,000 voters were taken off the rolls, he told the New York Times, 63,000 were added and the decline did not "shock his conscience." He told WNYC that "people die every day and they come off the list," and New Yorkers move a lot — another reason they might be taken off the rolls.
If an Election office sends a mailing to a voter and it's returned as undeliverable, the voter can temporarily be put on an "inactive" list. If that voter shows up to vote, "they're reactivated instantly. And they can vote and there's no problem."
But if the voter doesn't show up for two Federal elections in a row, their name can legitimately be removed from the rolls. A name can also be removed if Election officials verify that the individual has died, moved to another jurisdiction or is not allowed to vote for some other reason.
Among the people who said they were inappropriately missing from the voter list was Clyde Williams, a Congressional candidate in the NY-13 District in Upper Manhattan and one-time Political Director of the Democratic National Committee.
Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged the voter complaints in a statement Tuesday, calling on Election officials “to reverse that purge and update the lists again using Central, not Brooklyn borough, Board of Election staff.” He added, “These errors today indicate that additional major reforms will be needed to the Board of Election and in the state law governing it.”
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced on Wednesday afternoon that his office has opened an investigation into "alleged improprieties in Tuesday's voting by the New York City Board of Elections." He added in the statement that he is "deeply troubled by the volume and consistency of voting irregularities."
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said he will audit the independent agency.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
No comments:
Post a Comment