Local Voters Get Out to Polls on Primary Day

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Voters began to cast their Primary Day ballots early this morning for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president and City Council. But despite quickly moving voter lines, issues with erroneous polling locations and lever voting machines prevailed across the nabe.

Amanda Nick, 66, who has lived in Fort Greene for 20 years, said she has used the same voting site since she moved to Brooklyn. But as she arrived there early Tuesday afternoon, she was told her polling station had moved; she would have to go a block away a new polling site.

“I have nothing telling me to vote here,” Ms. Nick said, standing outside the Willoughby Neighborhood Senior Center.

Ms. Nick was not alone; many residents from the Ingersoll and Walt Whitman Houses said they did not receive notice that their polling station had changed.

“That’s untrue,” said Valerie Vazquez, Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the Board of Elections (BOE).

Vazquez added that the BOE sent information of changing polling stations in August, which included a colorful 23-page booklet with a voter card. She said voters also could have looked up their polling place online at nyc.pollsitelocator.com. The BOE spent two million dollars notifying voters of their change polling station. However, they were only able to afford to mail out information once.

“We also took out multi page ads in the newspaper … we took out posters and put them in poll sites,” Vazquez added.

Black x’s marked the choices on local resident Sandy Reiburn’s ballot. She arrived at her correct polling location, but as she pulled the voting machine lever to cast her vote, the machine jammed. She had to try three more times before her vote was counted at the polling station in Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene.

“If it gets through the glitch now, it won’t bother me,” said Reiburn, a 68-year-old retired business owner. “But with certain races being so tight, you don’t want to have to worry.”

Reiburn was using one of only two working machines – when the polls opened at Brooklyn Tech, staff realized that two of their four machines didn’t function. In accordance with the problems, some residents who cast votes from broken machines filled out emergency ballots.

First on the minds of many voters who entered the Charles A. Dorsey Elementary School to cast their ballots was the future of real estate development in the nabe.

“The affordable housing issue, it’s a real problem,” said Nicole Williams, a Fort Greene resident who works in legal social services, after she voted Tuesday morning. “People who braved it out when it was really a crime-ridden area [should] now stay and reap the rewards – and now those people are getting forced out.”

The debate over local real estate development played a prominent role in the races in the 35th District and many others after the public learned that millions in political contributions were spent by the Jobs for New York political action committee (PAC), which has connections to the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). The PAC spent more than $1.3 million endorsing candidates in 17 council races, including $80,000 for 35th City Council Candidate Laurie Cumbo

Many voters said they have seen the neighborhood quickly change during the past few decades, watching the primarily black neighborhood attract more white middle class residents. Leonard White, a 66-year-old African-American who grew up in the neighborhood, said he doesn’t think it’s fair that rising prices force people out of the area.

“People, who never lived here, come and buy houses,” White said. “The prices go up. Some neighbors have to leave.”

Retired MTA security worker Anthony Mochoa, whose family immigrated from Cuba, echoed White’s concerns.

“The cost of living is too high even for those on the higher end,” said Mochoa, 49, who has lived in Clinton Hill for twelve years.

As voters walked to the polls to make their opinions known, flyer distributors stood on corners around polling sites. Nearby the I.S. 113 Ronald Edmonds Learning Center in Fort Greene was 64-year-old Fort Greene resident Lucy Koteen. She was handing out flyers for mayoral candidate John Liu.

“It’s an effort,” she said, adding that sometimes the voters “don’t know who they’re voting for as they walk into polls.”

Koteen said she had been able to talk to people about the candidates and even change some minds. But some minds couldn’t be changed, not because of a lack apathy, but because they lacked the right to vote.

At P.S. 46’s polling station, mingled among school parents, teachers, voters and dog-walkers, were legal green card holders that we not allowed to exercise their right to vote. Josefa Santana, 51, a green card holder and Fort Greene resident said in Spanish “what is the difference between citizens and residents? We both live in the same place, we suffer the same problems.”

With a non-citizen population of 1.3 million in New York City, Council District 35 has approximately 18,750 non-citizens residents according to the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights. Some disenfranchised residents said the denial doesn’t mean they don’t participate in the community. It’s “taxation without representation” said American citizen V. Mann, 50, an accountant from the area, “They work and pay taxes, but cannot vote.”

Many locals who managed to traverse their polling site without issues noted that voting was simply part of their civic duty.

“I’m voting so at least I have the decision of who I want to represent me, to represent my best ideals,” Robert Williams, 41, of Fort Greene, said as he walked toward I.S 113. “If you don’t get out to vote, you don’t get to complain who gets into office.”

If you haven’t made it out to vote yet, you’ve still got time. Just head to the Board of Elections website to find your polling location and be sure to get there before the polls close at 9 p.m.

Reporting contributed by Melanie Bencosme, Yen Cheng Chen, Juliette Dekeyser, Briana Duggan, Mark Fahey, Leila Falls, Kyle Ligman, Sandra Lopez-Monsalve, Antonia Massa, Alessandra Malito, Reem Nasr, Chinwe Oniah, Leila Roos, Melisa Stumpf and Benjamin Tenerella-Brody.