Editorial
Op-ed
What’s the rush?
The New York City Board of Elections
(BOE) on Tuesday released
preliminary results from 11 rounds
of ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the
mayoral race. The problem is, those results
only include ballots from early voting and
Election Day and there are still more than
100,000 absentee ballots left to be counted.
The BOE said it would conduct the
count again, in its entirety, after all absentee
ballots are counted. So, why go through
the initial round of ranked-choice counting,
if the early results are going to be ignored
for the fi nal results, which aren’t expected
before July 12?
Making matters worse, after releasing
the preliminary report, the BOE said late
Tuesday that there is a “discrepancy” in the
unoffi cial RCV round-by-round elimination
numbers. The BOE said it is working to
address the issue and is asking the public,
elected offi cials and candidates to “have
patience.”
The BOE then pulled the results from its
website and released a statement indicating
that it accidently added about 135,000
votes to its preliminary RCV calculations
and promised an accurate preliminary
recount soon.
How can the BOE ask the public to “have
patience” when the agency completely
lacked patience of its own regarding the
primary election results. The department
should have simply waited to count all ballots
— every single vote — before starting
the ranked-choice counts. Instead, we have
chaos, in what is perhaps the city’s biggest
election cycle in years.
The results of this election will determine
our next mayor, comptroller, public
advocate and dozens of City Council
members. And now, because of the BOE’s
failure to successfully implement RCV on a
citywide level, how can we, the people, fully
trust the results of this election — never
mind the candidates?
The BOE should have practiced what it
preached and patiently waited for all votes
to be counted before releasing the unoffi cial
RCV round-by-round elimination numbers.
There is no value to creating the kind of
chaos that is now surrounding this election.
After the troubling events of the 2020
presidential election, which saw a sitting
president challenge the democratic process
due to fear of losing, it is more important
than ever to uphold the integrity of elections
in our city.
The BOE must fi x the mistakes it made,
and must do it now.
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
ROBERT POZARYCKI
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DEAN MOSES
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Member of the National
Newspaper Association
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Minority Women Business Enterprise
MTA Chairman Pat Foye
MTA optimistic over
reopening of NYC
BY PATRICK FOYE
There’s fi nally a palpable sense of
hope and excitement in the air now
that New York has turned the corner
on COVID-19 after suffering through one
of the worst years in more than a century.
With more than 70% of New Yorkers on
the way to becoming fully vaccinated, this
summer is set up to be one of normalcy.
Our subway system is once again open
24/7 to support the city that never sleeps
along with our vast network of buses. Live
sports and concerts are welcoming fans
at full capacity, restaurants are fi lling up,
businesses are reopening offi ces to employees,
and the bright lights of Broadway will
soon be illuminated again.
With New York coming back to life, public
transportation — as it always has — will
play a key role in this revival.
With every new development, ridership
has rebounded at impressive rates across
the MTA. Earlier this month, the subways
and commuter railroads broke pandemicera
records on three consecutive days. This
momentum refl ects the pace of our regional
recovery. The highs surpassed 2.57 million
riders for the subways, 122,000 for the Long
Island Rail Road and 104,000 for the Metro-
North Railroad. Buses also continue to carry
more than one million customers day.
This is amazing news and we’ve made
it our mission to keep this streak goingthrough
the summer. To coincide with the
start of the season, Metro-North last week
implemented its fi rst comprehensive service
increase since schedules were modifi ed due
to the pandemic more than a year ago.
Another more signifi cant adjustment
is planned for August. It will bring the
railroad to 83% of pre-COVID weekday
service just in time for an expected post-
Labor Day rush of commuters. To put that
in context, Metro-North ridership dropped
to less than 5% during the height of the
pandemic – a precipitous decline that
would have been inconceivable in the past.
Throughout this crisis, the MTA has
been constantly monitoring ridership at
all agencies with an eye toward increasing
service when the time is right. For example,
LIRR is currently operating at 81% service
and full service is already in place on the
subways and buses after both saw reductions
in 2020.
As COVID restrictions are lifted, we’re
looking beyond the traditional commute
as we work to win back more customers.
We’ve seen a notable uptick in leisure
travel on the weekends, especially on the
railroads. We want to ride this trend to not
only further improve our ridership, but help
New Yorkers celebrate and make this year
a summer to remember.
The MTA is announcing a series of partnerships
that will help you take advantage
of all the region has to offer. The LIRR
is promoting escorted tours to Montauk
and the North Fork, with stops at various
vineyards, breweries, and local landmarks.
Both railroads are also running discounted
ticket deals with the stunning Immersive
Van Gogh exhibit at Pier 36. You can
fi nd all the details on ourdiscountsweb
page,new.mta.info/daytrips.
I am confi dent there’s a fantastic summer
ahead for all us. And whether it’s the
beaches, a ballgame, or just a night out in
the city, our heroic employees stand ready
to do what they have done for more than a
century — get you wherever you want to go.
Patrick Foye is chair and CEO of the
MTA.
8 July 1, 2021 Schneps Media
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