60,000 fewer Democrats in Brooklyn and no clear reason why.
As the birthplace of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Brooklyn figures into nearly every one of his stump speeches. It’s also where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has based her national campaign headquarters.
Yet, even as the candidates lavish love on Brooklyn, a WNYC analysis of state voter enrollment statistics found that the number of active registered Democrats dropped there by 63,558 voters between November 2015 and April 2016. That translates into a 7% drop in registered Democrats in the borough. No other borough in New York City nor county in the rest of the state saw such a significant decline in active registered Democrats. In fact, only 7 of the state's 62 counties saw a drop in the number of Democrats. Everywhere else saw the numbers increase.
Despite the precipitous decline, no city or state election official could explain to WNYC why the number had dropped in a borough that’s been a hotbed of campaign activity, and has the highest population in the state, raising the perennial concern that there will be chaos at the polls on Tuesday caused in part by the very agency responsible for overseeing voter registration and election administration: the Board of Elections.
Valerie Vazquez-Diaz, a spokeswoman for the city Board of Elections, said a member of the Board’s Management Information System staff said the drop was the result of shifting some voters from active to inactive status. But even though more than 60,000 people were dropped from the list of active registered Democrats in Brooklyn, there was only an increase of roughly 10,000 inactive voters in the county. That means some 50,000 voters are unaccounted for entirely.
For a voter who believes she or he is a registered Democrat or Republican and does not appear in the poll books, New York City Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan said there is another option. “If for some reason there's a processing error and the person's name does not appear on the book, they can vote by affidavit ballot at the poll site,” said Ryan.
Affidavit, or provisional, ballots are paper and are not put through the scanner. But it still gives a person the ability to vote and those votes are counted.
At: http://www.wnyc.org/story/democratic-voter-rolls-drop-more-60000-brooklyn-presidential-primary/
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For anyone living in New York:
If a voter experiences a problem at their poll site, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office has set up a hotline that will be staffed by attorneys in the office's Civil Rights Bureau. That number is 800-771-7755. Complaints can also be submitted through email at [email protected] at any time between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
Please remember as well that, according to New York City Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan, if your name does not appear on the book, you can vote by affidavit ballot at the poll site.
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