Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Board of Elections fires director
NEW YORK (AP) — The embattled New York City Board of Elections has fired its executive director a week before Election Day.
The board's commissioners voted to fire George Gonzalez at a meeting Tuesday. Board spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez says a deputy executive director and an administrative manager will handle his responsibilities until a replacement is selected.
Gonzalez oversaw a September primary plagued with problems surrounding new automated voting machines that resemble ATMs and replaced an old mechanical lever system.
Board members testified at a City Council hearing some polling sites opened late on primary day and thousands of poll workers weren't trained.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the board's performance a "royal screw-up."
Gonzalez said at the hearing officials were trying to figure out how to make the Nov. 2 election go more smoothly, including retraining coordinators who oversee polling sites.
13 comments:
I've known him for over a 15 years. His arrogance finally caught up to him. All he had to do was act respectful to the media and other politicians and he would have walked away with a temporary suspension.
Anything run by local or federal employees spells disaster.
This is New York. A lot of political appointees, some are competent, and some not. In the case where there is a incompetent one, you are supposed to hand-pick a competent deputy, hope that the figurehead does not overrule the competent staffers. I guess this is what happened here.
This is ridiculous since other states have had these machines for a very long time with no problem. Those world war one clunker metal machines with the handle are pathetic.
Ok. Any new Board of elections person, the person fills in the circle next to the candidate, check the back page also, then the poll worker feeds the ballot into the machine in front of you and thats all there is to it making it much faster than those old dinosaur machines with no paper trail.
Anonymous #3 must be the one who posted in the other Board of Election posting and didn't have a problem with these new machines. Unlike him some voters do have a problem with their privacy being violated, why should the polling worker be the one to scan the ballot. He or she can see your vote. What is pathetic is your basic understanding of the American voter's rights.
This election will be fixed for those that Bloomberg wants in.
Plain and simple.
Misery loves company.
It doesn't matter who the Director is. The Board of Elections will continue to be an extention of the Democratic Party, favoring incumbents over challengers and doing everything possible to get them re-elected.
There are an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the Board of Elections. As previously noted, this is an example of bipartisan stupidity.
Why does it really matter? In Queens, you can't tell the democrats from the republicans anyhow!
This is so.
Anybody tell Anthony Como the patronage job he wanted is available again?
Good work, now get rid of Timothy Gay (Manhattan) and a creepy inspector who also works for the DOT, Fred Newton.
Then find out about the money spent on election day for the car service companies. They are paid for the day and most of them can't speak English. In Manhattan, it's all Dominican's.
Or how about the children of election workers who get paid to do as little work as possible on Election Day.
How about all the summer interns are related to a politician in some way making over $800/week.
Good money for 16 year olds.
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