125,000 Brooklynites Purged From Voter Rolls & More Primary Problems
Tuesday’s primaries have raised more questions than answers for Brooklynites.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has opened an investigation and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer will be conducting an audit into why over 125,000 of Brooklyn’s registered Democrats were dropped from voter rolls for Tuesday’s primary election, a figure confirmed by the Board of Elections.
“The people of New York City have lost confidence that the Board of Elections can effectively administer elections and we intend to find out why the BOE is so consistently disorganized, chaotic and inefficient. With four elections in New York City in 2016 alone, we don’t have a moment to spare,” said Stringer.
The mayor also expressed concern about the irregularities.
“The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Reports were widespread on Tuesday. A whole block Bensonhurst and another in Clinton Hill was dropped from the polls.
A WNYC analysis found that:
The more than 120,000 dropped includes 12,000 people who moved out of the borough, 44,000 people who were moved from active to inactive voter status, and 70,000 voters removed from the inactive voter list, according to the station.
Stringer’s office has created a form for voters to fill out to report their experiences on Tuesday.
