BOE to re-mail ballots after errors
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
After widespread reports
of city contractors mailing out
faulty absentee ballot envelopes
to voters around Brooklyn,
Board of Elections honchos
announced Tuesday they
will resend corrected ballots
to borough voters.
“We will direct the vendor
to reprint and re-mail all
of the absentee ballot packages
to all of the voters that were
affected,” said Board of Elections
executive director Michael
Ryan during the board’s
weekly meeting Sept. 29.
Up to 100,000 voters in Brooklyn
may have received absentee
ballots with return envelopes
that featured strangers’ names
and incorrect addresses, according
to an estimate by the
borough’s Democratic Party
Boss Rodneyse Bichotte.
Amid the confusion, prospective
voters took to social
media to express their frustration
— including one Brooklynite
named Morgan, who
received a mail-back envelope
ostensibly meant for someone
named Sean.
The BOE head cast full
blame for the bad ballots on a
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contracted upstate printer —
Phoenix Graphics — saying
the snafu happened during
one print run and was isolated
to the one borough, which is
home to 2.6 million residents.
“Our understanding of this
problem up to this point is that
it is isolated in one borough —
that would be the borough of
Brooklyn — and one print run,
and that would be the data that
we transmitted to them in the
fi rst day of processing,” the
elections honcho said.
Phoenix Graphics will
shoulder the cost of reprinting
and re-mailing ballots with a
note to voters telling them why
they’re getting a second ballot.
BOE bigwigs will also launch
a communications blitz to inform
their staff and voters
about the reissue, according
to Ryan, who said establishing
confi dence in the voting process
was of paramount concern,
doubling down that it really
wasn’t BOE’s fault.
“It is essential that confi -
dence be established in this process
and that we make certain
that all of the voters who potentially
have a problem, have
a full and fair opportunity to
remedy that problem,” he said.
“It’s also essential to point out
that this is a vendor error and
that the vendor is bearing the
cost of fi xing this problem from
a printing side of it.”
Following the public uproar
about the problem, the
BOE urged voters on Monday
to contact the agency via email
at Apply4Absentee@boe.nyc or
by phone at 1-866-VOTE-NYC if
they got a wrong ballot.
Bichotte, the Brooklyn
party boss, echoed Ryan, saying
the outside contractor was
squarely to blame for the mishap,
and demanded that the
agency send BOE staff to oversee
print productions — while
also notifying affected voters if
their ballots won’t be counted.
“Brooklyn voters wishing
to safely participate in our
democratic process are once
again being disenfranchised
by systemic errors caused by
third party participants in the
electoral process,” she said in
a statement on Tuesday. “I am
outraged that Brooklynites
are receiving erroneous ballots
impeding their ability to
effectively vote by mail.”
The politico said the
agency needed to restore confi
dence in the voting process,
especially as Democratic incumbents
face Republican
challengers in the borough’s
few swing districts along its
southern belt come Nov. 3.
“This problem is troubling,
and could impact the outcome
of the elections in south Brooklyn,
where there are marginal
races,” Bichotte said.
Rochester-based Phoenix
Graphics bills itself as “New
York State’s largest ballot producer,”
and was awarded a
non-competitive $4.6 million
contract to handle absentee
ballots, The City reported. The
issue is of particular importance
this year, as the number
of people opting to vote by
mail is set to soar in numbers
due to the COVID-19 pandemic
keeping people away from
crowded in-person places.
Phoenix Graphics did not
return multiple requests for
comment by press time.
Amid the rush to blame
Phoenix, another politico said
that patronage and partisan
appointments of BOE commissioners
by county parties were
also at the root of the problem.
“BOE is trying to place
blame on their third-party
contractor,” said Jessica Thurston,
vice president of political
affairs at New Kings Democrats.
“This is fully on them to
get it right.”
MAIL FAIL: Up to 100,000 Brooklynites may have received absentee ballots
with errors, according to the Brooklyn Dems. Ginger Adams
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