‘We have always made it diffi cult for people to vote’
Public Advocate calls for election reforms after litany of primary day miscues
BY TODD MAISEL
Election reform would make the
November general election more inclusive
and fair, advocates said at a press
conference led by Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams this morning.
Williams was joined by advocates
from Common Cause New York calling
for the Board of Elections to correct
problems with mail-in balloting and
to bring voting up to speed. That way,
the maximum number of eligible voters
will be able to do so in November
and New York could avoid voters being
“disenfranchised.”
Williams said he was concerned
about what many New Yorkers experienced
at the polls on primary day,
nearly canceled because of COVID-19,
but kept in place by the courts. Despite
polls being open, more than 2 million
people voted by paper ballot, something
Williams would like continued
for the general election.
He understood that the Board of
Elections was working under hardship
conditions because of COVID-19, but
he said the problems were exacerbated
by those issues. Some of the problems
voters experienced were not getting
their mail-in ballots; not being able
to confirm that their ballots were received;
or receiving the wrong district
ballot or just half a ballot. In addition,
there were shortages of poll workers
and some polls opened later than mandated.
“We have always made it difficult
for people to vote and we should make
it as easy as possible including using
absentee ballot – let’s keep whatever
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we have here now and allow people to
vote again with absentee and make it
permanent,” Williams said. “Let’s get
in the process of used to it, whether it
is early voting, absentee voting, sameday
registration – these are things we
have to stop resisting. Things will get
better, but we also have to get more
funding into the system for training.”
He and advocates say the problems
should be addressed now, before the
all-important General Election in November.
“We know that the board of elections
had a difficult time and still haven’t
fully recovered from the COVID-19
pandemic — we’re still going through
it,” he said. “What the pandemic did
was expose many of the existing problems
within the system. The November
election is coming up and we will see
more people exponentially coming out
to vote. If we don’t start planing now
we will see even more problems and
have a disaster on our hands.”
Other complaints he received was
some people couldn’t get to polls early
because trains were not running till 5
a.m.
“My office and other community
groups heard the complaints and November
is another important election
so we sent a letter to Michael Ryan of
Board of Elections before we saw what
we were seeing and will send another
letter today about what we heard, witnessed,
and we hope to get results.”
Wiliams added, “While we do understand
some of the mitigating circumstances,
it did exacerbate the underlying
problems that were there, and
we have to get them fixed.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams File photo
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