BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR ULY 2-8, 2021 15
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker
Corey Johnson celebrated the city’s
new $98.7 billion budget, which the
City Council voted to approve on
Wednesday, June 30.
“This is one of the greatest investments
in working families in
the history of New York City,” de
Blasio said during Wednesday’s
press conference in the City Hall
Rotunda.
“We are sending resources to the
communities who need it most, this
is a radical investment in working
families and that’s what we need
right now to come out of this pandemic
and move forward.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday,
June 30, said the city’s Board of Elections
needs a total overhaul following
the error-prone agency’s latest blunder
of adding more than 130,000 votes to the
recent citywide early voting and Primary
Election Day preliminary ballot
count.
“Yet again, the fundamental structural
flaws of the Board of Elections are
on display.
There must be an immediate, complete
recanvass of the BOE’s vote count
and a clear explanation of what went
wrong. The record number of voters
who turned out this election deserve
nothing less,” said de Blasio.
De Blasio noted he once offered the
BOE over $20 million to reform themselves,
and now says nothing short of a
complete structural rebuild of the board
is needed.
“They refused, leaving legislative action
as the next available recourse. After
waiting hours in line myself to vote
last fall, I presented a plan to remake the
Board of Elections,” said de Blasio.
De Blasio suggested that the fix for
the BOE’s woes lies in state legislation
including the passage of S. 6226 / A.
5691, sponsored by Manhattan Senator
Liz Krueger and and Queens Assemblywoman
Nily Rozic, to immediately professionalize
the BOE in its current form
and make them directly accountable to
the city’s elected officials.
De Blasio also recommended to
amend the State Constitution to allow
for a new, professional BOE, removed of
party affiliation.
Meanwhile, Eric Adams’ campaign
for mayor filed a lawsuit in Kings County
Supreme Court seeking to ensure a fair
and transparent election process.
“Today we petitioned the court to
preserve our right to a fair election process
and to have a judge oversee and review
ballots, if necessary. We are notifying
the other campaigns of our lawsuit
through personal service, as required
by law, because they are interested parties.
We invite the other campaigns to
join us and petition the court as we all
seek a clear and trusted conclusion to
this election,” said an Adams campaign
spokesperson.
Additionally, Kings County Democratic
Party Chair and Assemblymember
Assemblymember Rodneyse
Bichotte Hermelyn called for the establishment
of an independent, nonpartisan
panel to see what changes are
needed going forward, both in the BOE
and in order to implement and prepare
for ranked-choice voting.
“Voter disenfranchisement is not
a new phenomenon. In 2020 we experienced
a new wave of voting rights attacks
that rang alarm bells. In New York
City we must do all we can to ensure that
no voter falls victim to this and that the
integrity of our elections is always upheld,”
said Bichotte Hermelyn.
“We need full participation in our democracy
and that starts with assuring
voters that their voice is heard and their
vote is validated at the polls. That is why
I am in the process of introducing state
legislation reforms in Albany, as well as
supporting a number of reforms introduced
by my colleagues,” she added.