“New York City is part of the greatest democracy in the world. Yet our democracy is only as strong as the election system we have in place to support it. Members of the City Council are still deeply concerned by the city-wide election system failures that occurred on Primary Day and we hope today’s State Senate hearing begins to shed some light on the many questions and concerns that have been raised since this problem-ridden Primary Day.

On Monday, October 4th, the City Council Governmental Operations Committee will also hold a hearing to examine city-related issues of voter privacy, machine problems, disenfranchisement and inadequate poll worker training. To better understand many of the Primary Day failures in advance of the hearing, the City Council demanded that the Board of Elections, the Department of Education, and the New York City Police Department increase their standard of accountability and transparency by documenting and publicizing all actions that impacted a person’s right to vote on Primary Day. Following city-wide reports of voters with disabilities facing difficulties accessing poll sites, the Council also partnered with local disability advocates on a series of recommendations to increase accessibility for New York City’s disabled voters.

With the general election fast approaching, our local government must guarantee that every voter in the City of New York is given equal opportunity to exercise their right to vote. We look forward to a productive and informative hearing in the coming days and working with each of these agencies to make our election system as strong as possible.”