WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 15, 2018 13
PLIGHT OF THE
POLL WORKER
As a poll worker for two straight
years, I have a good gauge on what
works and doesn’t work in a typical
polling site in New York City.
Having worked in two different
locations, in the past two years, under
three diff erent coordinators (the boss
at a polling site), I have seen the style
of leadership each coordinator has and
what needs to be done to service the
Voter, our customer so to speak.
One thing is certain: this Election Day
had a lot of problems associated with it.
For me, it wasn’t just the weather or the
failure of the machinery to work or the
long lines of voters waiting to slip their
ballots into the scanners. It was also a
lack of training and contingency plans
on the part of the coordinator I worked
under.
A Polling Site should be thought of
like a retail store — that is, to welcome
the customer in (the voter), give him or
her the service they deserve, process
them quickly and send them on their
way happy for the experience.
That didn’t happen this Election Day,
for numerous reasons. For one, the
scanner machines couldn’t handle the
volume of ballots sent into them.
As poll workers, we are given a
manual to anticipate any problems we
are faced with, but this contingency, of
Scanner failure on a grand scale, is only
partially referred to in the manual, under
“emergency ballots.” It only applies if
all scanners are not working.
I was faced with a line of some 120
voters waiting to slide their marked
ballots into one single scanner machine.
We gave them the welcome, handed them
the ballot, but didn’t have the machinery
capable of dealing with the volume: especially
in the late aft ernoon and evening.
It is said that you should learn from your
mistakes. In that vain, I have a recommendation:
to have contingency plans if a majority
of the scanners break down, such as
moving to “emergency ballots,” by having
the voter place the ballot into a slot
under the scanner. A bipartisan team
can then scan it later when the scanner
is fi xed. My coordinator did not do that.
SM Sobelsohn, Kew Gardens
VOTE OUT THE
‘BROKEN OLD
ENTERPRISE’
I’ve frequently complained to the
Courier about the closure of my nearby
poll site at P.S. 164 in Kew Gardens Hills.
But now I’m glad that I voted by absentee
ballot and avoided a horror show. The
Daily News reported what a columnist
called a “Dumpster-fire democratic
process” that included broken scanning
machines, long lines and confusing ballots
at many NYC polling sites.
The Board of Elections (BOE) really
stands for “Broken Old Enterprise,”
which must be scrapped and totally
replaced. Here are three suggestions:
1. Staff the BOE with qualified professionals,
not political hacks chosen by borough
presidents & approved by the City Council.
Incompetence starts at the top with BOE
boss Michael Ryan, who said his troops
weren’t prepared for a large voter turnout.
Why not? On what planet does he work?
2. Throw out the electronic scanning
devices, which are a digital disaster,
and bring back the mechanical voting
machines that I fi rst used when I
pulled the lever for JFK in 1960. They
don’t break down, can’t be hacked and
provide total voter secrecy and privacy.
3. Simplify the election process via
early voting, online registration and
less confusing ballots. Put referendum
proposals, like the one setting term
limits for community board members,
on a separate ballot, not on the other
side of the ballot used for selecting
candidates, as was done on Nov. 6. This
created confusion and wasted time.
Richard Reif, Kew Gardens Hills
TIME TO COME
TOGETHER AND ACT
The votes are in and the results are
unclear. We know that the Democrats
will control the House of Representatives
and the Republicans will control
the U.S.Senate. The prospect of two
years of a divided Congress can be a
great danger or a great opportunity.
One possibility is that Congress will
continue its present path. Members
from both parties, some out of principle,
others out of fear of antagonizing
the base, will continue to cling to hardened
ideological positions and refuse
to compromise.
The other possibility is that wiser
heads from both parties will prevail.
They will realize that in a divided Congress
the only way to get things done
is for both parties to work together to
develop bipartisan solutions to our
many challenges. By toning down the
rhetoric and developing solutions,
Congress can help to heal the partisan
bitterness that is threatening to
tear our country apart.
Those who see the need to tone
down the decibel level of political
rhetoric and for members of Congress
to work together as partners
have a base on which to build. A
number of organizations have been
founded to promote bipartisanship
and co-operation.
One of the most prominent is No
Labels (of which I am a member of the
New York State Leadership Council).
We are not calling on everyone to
agree. We are calling for debate to
take place in a spirit of mutual respect,
in which people can hear and
learn from each other’s arguments.
We are not asking our representatives
to compromise on principle. We
are asking then to rise above their
diff erences, realize that their opponents
have legitimate needs that need
to be addressed and work together to
achieve principled compromise in
which no one gets everything they
want but everyone gets most of what
they need.
The decisions our Representatives
will make in the next few weeks may
well determine how eff ective Congress
will be in addressing our concerns
over the next two years and beyond.
While changing the way Congress
operates and making it more eff ective
would certainly help to improve the
climate, real change will only come
from the bottom up.
There are several ways in which
people can become involved. They
can go to nolabels.com to learn more
about the organization and become
members, or they can contact me directly
at mjbnolabels@aol.com.
It is not enough to complain about
the toxic political climate. It is up to us
to change it.
Manny Behar, Forest Hills
Email your letters to editorial@qns.
com (Subject: Letter to the Editor) or
leave a comment to any of our stories
at QNS.com. You can also send a letter
by regular mail to Letters to the Editor,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All
letters are subject to editing. Names
will be withheld upon request, but
anonymous letters will not be considered
for publication. The views
expressed in all letters and comments
are not necessarily those of this newspaper
or its staff.
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
link
