Voting lines wrap around McGuinness senior center in Greenpoint on midterm election day 2018.
The outrage caused by widespread voting machine breakdowns throughout New York City on midterm election day is largely falling on the shoulders of Board of Elections Director Michael Ryan.
At Greenpoint’s polling sites wait-times exceeded two hours throughout the day, as ballot scanners overheated, jammed and simply stopped working. Greenpoint was not alone, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams counted 49 poll sites facing similar dilemmas.
Voter turnout increased 88 percent in NYC this year for the midterm elections compared with the 2014 midterms, but decreased by nearly one million voters compared with the 2016 presidential elections, according to Gothamist.
BOE director Ryan said that 56 ballot scanners were taken out of service on Tuesday between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., the 15-hour window which saw 1.9 million NYC voters — each with two double-sided ballots — overwhelm the eight-year-old scanners that were expected to be used for 10 years. 6,000 calls were made to 311 pertaining to election day woes.
As a wave of eager voters arrived at their poll sites across New York City today, tens of thousands of Brooklynites faced extended lines with wait times over two-hours due to malfunctioning ballot scanners. The resiliency of NYC voters was on full display as they waited through the chaos, likely wondering why New York doesn’t have early voting.
The line at John Ericsson Middle School 126 (424 Leonard St.) in Greenpoint wrapped down the hall outside of the voting room and the wait time was over two hours at 2 p.m., after four out of six ballot scanners stopped working.
The long lines to vote and scan ballots at 715 Leonard St.
Greenpointers hoping to cruise by their poll site this morning and vote in a timely fashion were met with hour-long wait times as early as 8:30 a.m. at the McGuinness Senior Center (715 Leonard St.). Continue reading →
New York got out the vote yesterday, and here in the 12th district, which includes Greenpoint, Williamsburg, a large swath of the East Side of Manhattan, and parts of Queens, Carolyn Maloney defended her seat in the democratic primary against political newcomer Suraj Patel.
Maloney nabbed nearly 60% of the vote throughout the district, running with the endorsement of the New York Democratic Establishment, but Patel, a former Obama campaign staffer who ran to her left, picked up 66% of the vote in North Brooklyn.
Maloney has already served 13 terms in the House of Representatives. She will face Republican candidate Eliot Rabin during the Congressional election in November. You can find out more about Maloney’s platform here, and more about Rabin’s here.
The old adage tells us that “you can’t fight city hall.” Often, in New York, it can feel like it’s residents vs. the City, but sometimes, Gotham and its elected officials are on the same page. One of those times is during participatory budgeting, when “community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.” It’s a rare instance when the City Council gives New Yorkers “Real Money. Real Power.” to improve their communities. So get ready to wield that power, because the next participatory budgeting vote will take place April 7th- April 15th!
There’s a million dollars on the line, and you can vote for up to 5 projects that will receive the funds. The proposed projects call for improvements to schools, parks, libraries, public housing, and other public or community spaces subject to “discretionary funds.” All projects were suggested by community members, and the winners will be chosen by the community!
Out of 150 proposed projects, neighborhood volunteers whittled the choices down to 9 projects you can vote on, based on “equity, feasibility, cost, and need.” And it’s not to late to help out! If you’d like to volunteer as a poll worker, you can RSVP here!
I recently had my first experience as a poll worker right here at the Greenpoint McGuinness Senior Center polling site (715 Leonard St). There was a lot that I enjoyed, and I encourage others to be a poll-worker some day. It is democracy in action.
Get Your “I Voted” Sticker September 12th! via DNAinfo
Get ready to get out the vote, Greenpoint! New York City’s Primary Elections for the Democratic and Reform parties are next Tuesday, September 12th. This handy voting guide lists all candidates running for Mayor, Public Advocate and Brooklyn DA, and includes each person’s bio and policy positions. And here’s how you find your polling place!
In our district, District 33, we will be voting for citywide Public Advocate, Brooklyn DA, Kings County Judge of the Civil Court and NYC Mayor (Democratic Primary). The Public Advocate incumbent is Letitia James, and David Eisenbach is running against her. For Brooklyn DA there are six candidates: Eric Gonzalez, Ama Dwimoh, Marc Fliedner, Patricia Gatling, Vincent Gentile, and Anne Swern. For Civil Court Judge, you can select five from these choices: Robin K. Sheares, John K. O’Hara, Patrick J. Hayes, Frederick C. Arriaga, David C. Pepper, Connie M. Melendez, Patria Frias-Colon, Sandra Elena Roper, Ellen E. Edwards, Isiris Isela Isaac, and Thomas J. Kennedy. For NYC Mayor there are five to pick from: Sal Albanese, Richard S. Bashner, Bill DeBlasio (our current mayor!), Robert Gangi, and Michael Tolkin. Continue reading →
Yes, it’s that time of the year again–big old Election Day. For those of us living here, this day seems rather arbitrary. Since we’re such a blue state, it’s usually easy to guess the outcomes. The incumbent of the year–aka Governor Cuomo–usually wins. As a result, we have become lazy-ass voters. This needs to change.
A couple of days ago I pondered on our failed corrupt political machine and I thought to myself: What would happen if no one voted? What if we got even lazier than the measly 24% of registered voters and decided NOT to vote in the name of protest?What would be the outcome? Would things gets worse? Stay same?
Truth is, if we don’t vote our state of affairs will probably get a whole lot worse than allowing 30 corrupt lawmakers into our government affairs.
While I want nothing to do with a Governor who dismantled his own Moreland Anti-Corruption Commision when the dogs came sniffing too close to his butt, or his opponent, Rob Astorino, who continues to push the same tired-rich-white-man Republican agenda, I do care about computers for schools, who will get picked to draw out voting districts, and saving some trees. Let’s break down our voting options shall we: Continue reading →
I can’t take this roller coaster ride! The verdict is still out as to whether Lincoln Restler won the recent election. Here is a recent email that explains:
“Dear Jen,
On Friday evening, the canvassing of voting machines was completed and emergency, affidavit, and absentee ballots were all fully accounted for. Board of Elections staff and our election lawyers confirmed the result: every valid ballot had been counted and we had overcome a 136 vote margin on election night to be ahead by 53 votes in the final result.
Then on Saturday, we received a phone call from technological consultants to the Board of Elections informing us that their assessment had changed. Two memory sticks from the same scanning machine had yielded different results. We spent the weekend assessing how two data drives from the same machine could possibly provide different numbers, but we now believe we are facing a deficit of 31 votes.
Ultimately this vote difference does not change what happens next: despite everything the Brooklyn machine threw at us – the margin in this election is so small that State law mandates a hand recount of every ballot before the election result is final. The spread is now 50.1% to 49.9% in a 12,000 vote race, which means every single ballot that the BOE will now be reviewing truly counts. We are looking for volunteers who would be willing to help us monitor the hand recount, please email me directly if you would like to be involved in this process.
Thank you for your tremendous support and I am sorry for the roller coaster ride!
