Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

More Voting Issues: Prospect Heights Edition

November 4th, 2008 · 3 Comments

From Brooklynian comes this tale of voting woe in Prospect Heights:

So I just got back from voting with my husband. We waited in line for 45 min. Once inside the school, you had to wait in one for your voter card, then another line to get to the voting booth. My husband was inside the booth and I was next in line. This woman (another voter) comes up and asks what number is on my voting card. Her number was lower, so she was going to go in front of me. Well, then we realize that the numbers on our cards weren’t going to match the number on the voting machine. So, for example, my husband’s card had 300 on it but the machine was on 295. So, the votes weren’t matching the voters. When my husband came out, one of the overseers just tells me to go in and vote. And I told her no way… I wanted the machine to match my card. So the guy taking the cards had to go up the counter on the booth. Then, the woman told the guy to make sure the card matches the machine. I’m not really sure what to do about this. I wonder what will happen at the end of the day… do they compare the card count against the machine count? And if they don’t match, will there be a problem with the votes not ‘counting’ or something?

The YouTube vid above is something that we just found posted about the line at PS9 and is independent of the post about PS9, but seem to work well together. Been an interesting day so far.

Tags: Politics · Prospect Heights

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 gowanus neighbor // Nov 4, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    There’s some really good information on how poll workers are instructed to deal with issues around voting cards and machine numbers on the NYC Board of Elections website. Click on the Poll Workers Manual.

    At my polling place this morning at least 4 people who seem familiar with the drill, like the poster above. You stand in your ED line, you sign and pollworker fills out your card, you move to the booth line.

    So, this is how it’s always been done in NYC I think, so I guess if this is news, that you have to stand in line twice, than it must be new voters. Which is WAY COOL but also, I think, rife with opportunity for error.

  • 2 Phil // Nov 4, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    There were no problems in the Kensington/Ditmas election districts over @ IS 62. I voted around 10:30 and there was a one long line of about 50 people standing at one election district. The others each had a 10-15. I was taken right away at my election district. There was only one person. A friend of mine who votes in Prospect Heights called me around 11 to say it was a 2 1/2 hour wait. I never heard of such a thing in NYC. Why weren’t better preparations made?

    Meanwhile the Board of Elections didn’t even have a copy of a printed ballot to be looked at prior to voting anywhere. Yet when I got to my voting station there it was pasted to the wall where if you were standing in line you couldn’t possibly see what was on it and those on line didn’t want to lose their place to go look. Nor did I get the booklet in the mail that I usually get.

    They don’t want democracy is my conclusion. Because everyone is excited about this election it’s too much work and too much to ask for. No they much rather complain about the lack of voter participation as they have done in past elections.

    I hate to sound like a complainer but who is in charge? Well this will be off our minds until the next election. . .

  • 3 colleen // Nov 4, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    I think that this turned out to be a non issue, if you read the thread in its current entirety.