Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Board of elections seeks to end long voter lines

From Capital New York:

Commissioners at the New York State Board of Elections are asking their New York City counterparts to develop an explicit plan to combat the long lines that have plagued the city’s polling places in recent elections.

New York City voters frequently have to deal with long lines that can run hundreds of people long or last hours. In 2012, these problems were exacerbated by Hurricane Sandy, though they have existed in most high-turnout elections held in previous years.

At the B.O.E. commissioners’ meeting Monday, co-executive director Bob Brehm described several discussions with the city B.O.E., in which they discussed plans to experiment with changes in the elections that will precede the presidential election in November 2016.


I'd love to know where these long lines are. When I go vote, it's generally a ghost town.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Richmond Hill has incredibly long lines when everyone converges to vote after work into the evening because nobody's job lets them have time off to vote anymore. I have waited over an hour. My husband, a self employed early am voter, had no lines, and came down to see whether I was ok.

Anonymous said...

Havent we been down this road a million times already?

Anonymous said...

Another government agency fixing a "Problem" that just ain't there....

JQ said...

Why isn't election day a national holiday? I might be spit-balling here, but the results would have more legitimacy if the turnouts would be larger if everyone had the spare time all day to go vote, and no one would have some lame excuse not to, even the cynical ones who think their vote won't change anything.

And thanks to our beloved internet, maybe voters can find the time during the day to do some research and vetting of the candidates.

But for now, we have to read these bogus stories about drastically improving the electoral process. Which will just lead to another below 30 percentile turnout and the same hacks staying at their jobs.

Anonymous said...

The board of elections needs some serious reforming.

LibertyBoyNYC said...

It should be a day off. Period.

William M. Tweed said...

"Vote early and vote often"

This message brought to you by Tammany Hall
and the New York City Democratic Party

Anonymous said...

At my polling place I find the long lines are caused by the slowness of the personnel at the tables. If more efficient personnel were hired the wait and process would be far more efficient. They move and read at a snail's pace. Yet I am sympathetic because they appear to be in their 80's and 90's.....

Anonymous said...

Less people would vote on a day off. All the idiots would go out the night before, get hammered and be too hung-over to vote. Or they would take Monday off and go on vacation. Polls open at 6:00am and close at 9:00pm. Your employer must give you 2 hours to vote. If you can't get to the polls then use an absentee ballot.

Anonymously Grey Gardens said...

Oh, my very wise and always 'spot on' JQ, political hacks and their sycophantic henchmen don't like progress and efficiency!

How else would they stay in any pretense of cradle-to-grave employment, if not for decades of absent and forever missing accountability, productivity, openness and transparency, when all Queens politicians themselves are devoid of any such character and reliability?

The whole of city and state government in New York (as with everywhere else), is a grinding dereliction of public duty---where obscene reward is always bestowed upon these staggering political derelicts with the worst records of all time, when they should instead be banished from all purported civics and public service for life!

Welcome to Queens County, then---the official Fourth World-in-one, collapsing borough of epic political fail---and the public be eternally damned (again and still)!

Anonymous said...

When I lived in Astoria the lines were always long. I had to bring a book read while I waited. to vote. Since moving to Bayside I'm in and out. I've never waited more than a couple of minute.

Anonymous said...

Come vote between 6 and 7PM, and you'll see lines. Especially if a machine or two breaks right then.

Anonymous said...

The idiots who work as poll workers, inspectors, door people and coordinators are the reason there are so many problems. I used to work the elections but the ones who didn't know how to do anything liked to tell the others what to do. The Coordinators are the worst, appointed by district leaders.

They sit there doing noting for the entire day. then go rip down the signs that they put up in the wrong place in the morning.