Read the letter (PDF)

In continued efforts at greater accountability and transparency, Council also seeks data from NYPD, Board of Elections and Department of Education

September 24, 2010, City Hall – Following widespread reports of Primary Day polls unable to open due to improper poll site staffing, Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Governmental Operations Committee Chair Gale Brewer today announced measures that seek to provide greater public transparency and accountability as well as clearer data on election day operations.

In a letter to the New York City Board of Elections, the Department of Education, and the New York City Police Department, the Speaker and Council Member demanded the agencies take a number of steps to both examine what happened during the most recent primary election day and to prevent future failures from happening.

Specifically, the Council is calling for the following:

• A comprehensive examination to be conducted by the NYPD and Department of Education to identify when and at which locations workers failed to show up and as a result caused late openings of their polling sites;
• Reporting on what disciplinary measures will be taken in response to workers who did not show up when and where they were assigned to;
• The Board of Elections compiling all incident reports that were filed during the September 7, 2010 Primary Day elections and making the reports publicly available on the Board of Elections website; and
• A new reporting system to be implemented for the November 2010 general elections that will document all Election Day operations at each polling site, also to be made available to the public.

“We are the greatest democracy in the world, said Speaker Quinn. “Yet our democracy is only as strong as the election system we have in place to support it. Today the City Council is calling on the Board of Elections, the Department of Education, and the New York City Police Department to increase their standard of accountability and transparency by documenting and publicizing all actions that impacted a person’s right to vote on Primary Day. We look forward to getting this information as soon as possible and working with these agencies to improve New York City’s Election Day procedures.”

“The principle of one person/one vote is the bedrock of free elections,” said Governmental Operations Chair Brewer. “Therefore, we must have a system of voting that enfranchises every New York City voter. A successful Election Day operation in New York City is always challenging. It requires the cooperation of several city agencies and thousands of workers. The Primary Day Election revealed widespread problems with the new voting system. The problems reported on Primary Day are not ultimately the fault of the machines. The system that we use is only as trustworthy as the people who operate it.”

The new reporting system will include such information as: poll site opening time, police officers assigned to polling site with badge numbers cited, arrival time of each worker assigned to polling site, references to any incident reports filed with full reports attached, length of time, if machines are down, that paper ballots are used, poll closing time and any additional information that may be deemed necessary or helpful.

The Council is asking that the agencies prepare the requested information prior to the Council’s upcoming oversight hearing on the issue, scheduled for Monday, October 4th.

Reports from across the city indicated that the required staff from the Department of Education and the Police Department either did not show up or showed up late in their required duties to assist poll workers in opening poll sites.

In addition to the concerns raised in today’s letters, the Council will also examine issues of voter privacy, machine problems, disenfranchisement and inadequate poll worker training,

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