Early Voter Reform
BOARD OF ELECTIONS DOUBLES NUMBER
OF QUEENS EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS
FOLLOWING COMPLAINTS FROM ELECTEDS
BY BILL PARRY
The city’s Board of Elections an-nounced
it would double the num-ber
of early voting polling sites
from seven to 14 after complaints
from state Senator Michael Gia-naris
and several elected officials
in northeast Queens that the original plan was
inadequate.
Gianaris held a press conference at LaGuardia
Community College in early May where he com-plained
that seven polling sites were simply not
enough for voters in Queens, which has the second-highest
population in the state (by county) and the
largest geographic area in the city.
Under the state’s new voting law, Queens resi-dents
will be able to begin casting their votes nine
days before Election Day this year but the BOE plan
had too few locations, and “the few sites chosen are
not even convenient for many residents,” Gianaris
wrote in a letter to the BOE.
“Seven polling sites for more than 2 million people
is an affront to democracy. The Board of Elections
plan deserves a recount,” Gianaris said at his press
conference. “We passed this law to make it easier
for millions of New Yorkers to vote. The Board of
Elections needs to step up so more New Yorkers
will vote.”
Gianaris was angered that just a single location
was originally planned for all of western Queens,
at LaGuardia Community College. On Thursday, the
BOE announced it would add a second location
in Gianaris’ district, at the Museum of the Moving
Image in Astoria.
“I am glad more voters will have the chance to
vote now that additional poll sites have been added,”
Gianaris said. “While we need even more going
24 JUNE 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
forward, doubling the initial proposal is a step in
the right direction.”
The BOE also added a polling site in Bayside, at
the Korean Community Services located at 203-05
32nd Avenue, after Assemblywoman Nily Rozic and
Assemblyman Edward Braunstein fired off a letter to
the BOE complaining that voters in eastern Queens
were being overlooked.
The original plan had just one early voting poll-ing
site in all of northeast Queens, at the Al Oerter
Recreational Center in Flushing Meadows Corona
Park several miles away from voters in Bayside,
Fresh Meadows, Auburndale, Bay Terrace, Whites-tone,
Oakland Gardens, Douglaston and Little Neck.
Other new locations announced by the BOE on
Thursday include the Cross Island YMCA in Belle-rose,
the First Baptist Church in East Elmhurst, Holy
Trinity Parish Church in Cambria Heights, the New
York Hall of Science in Corona and the Rochdale
Village Community Center in Jamaica.
The original sites include Rentar Plaza in Middle
Village, Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens,
Resorts World Casino in South Ozone Park and the
Rockaway YMCA at Arverne by the Sea.
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