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Mayor Bloomberg spoke out about the unofficial results from NYC's primary night undercounted votes in 78 districts. These districts' unofficial results raised eyebrows because no votes at all were recorded Barack Obama.
Bloomberg said, "This is just an outrage," and decried the Board of Elections for being a "partisan patronage organization": "What they do is hire on the basis of politics, and obviously the people that they have aren't as competent as you would like, because the results that they reported just defies credibility." Bloomberg also sniffed, "If you want to call it significant undercounting, I guess that's a euphemism for fraud."
The Democratic co-chair for the State Board of Elections believes human error, plus ballot design, might have played a role in the undercounting. Doug Kellner told the Post similar errors have happened before and noted since Obama's name followed many candidates who probably received zero votes (see this image), "the likelihood of a zero’s going in the Obama column was a lot greater than a zero’s going in the Clinton column."
The good government group the Citizens Union also sent a letter to Governor Spitzer (cc'ing Attorney General Cuomo); executive director Dick Dadey wrote, "What most troubles us is that this problem appears not to be an isolated incident in one or two election districts that could be attributable easily to simple human error, but points possibly to the existence of a widespread systemic problem." The full letter is after the jump; official NYC primary results are expected next week.
With Obama's wins in Wisconsin and Hawaii, Hillary Clinton has started to focus on Obama's rhetoric. At a Hunter College event today, she said, "It's time that we move from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions ... This campaign goes on!" Hmm, maybe she needs some Clintones (above).
Letter from the Citizens Union to Governor SpitzerFebruary 19, 2008
The Honorable Eliot Spitzer
Governor, State of New York
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224Dear Governor Spitzer:
I write to express the very serious concern of Citizens Union for the reported irregularities in the tabulation and reporting of the initial election results for the Democratic presidential primary on February 5th, and urge you to ask whatever appropriate state authority or the Attorney General, if necessary, to undertake an investigation into what occurred and the reasons for any discrepancies, and explore what remedies are needed to prevent future occurrences of this kind.
As has been reported in several news publications, it appears that in as many as eighty election districts in the City of New York, presidential candidate Barack Obama received no votes. Reports also show that this problem was not isolated to his candidacy, but also affected Hillary Clinton's as well, though to a far lesser extent. The fact that two major presidential candidates would not gain even one vote out of several hundred cast in certain election districts strains credulity, particularly in districts like the one in Harlem where one would think Obama would have demonstrated a respectable, if not strong, showing.
What most troubles us is that this problem appears not to be an isolated incident in one or two election districts that could be attributable easily to simple human error, but points possibly to the existence of a widespread systemic problem.
New Yorkers must have confidence in the integrity of our election system and that when they vote, their vote counts. This problem of underreporting in initial but uncertified vote tallies brings to the forefront many questions not only about how votes are counted, but also how our elections are administered.
No one knows the extent of the problem or what caused it, but the citizens of New York deserve to know. New Yorkers need to be assured that elections are conducted in the most impartial non-partisan manner possible and that great care is taken to report election night results to the media that are as accurate as possible, even if they will not be certified until several weeks later by the board of elections. The bottom line is that those early results were inaccurately tabulated by poll workers of the city board and reported to the media. Given the historical significance of this election, the hometown advantage of Clinton, and the national spotlight being shown on New York State, it was imperative that our city results were correct, which may ultimately appear not be the case. While the certified results will not change which candidate received the most votes, it is possible that these results might alter the delegate allocation indicated by the election night count. Even if the delegate count does not change, the certified electoral margin could be significantly different from the all-important reporting of the margin the night of the election, which would undermine the integrity of the vote and the confidence we need to have in our system of election administration.
I ask you to work with the appropriate state authorities and Attorney General Cuomo to find out what happened on the night of February 5th, report back to the citizens of New York and take whatever steps are necessary to reform the administration of our elections so that public confidence is restored.
Sincerely,
Dick Dadey
Executive Directorcc: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
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new york's voting for hillary, even if barack did get more votes than previously, shows how out of touch the city is with the rest of the country.
Bloomberg's right. Both the city and state boards of election are putrid political patronage pits filled with unmotivated and incompetent employees. Seriously, the requirement to work there is that you're a member of one of the two major political parties and you know someone who will hook you up with the job. They hire total hacks with the only goal being to have equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans working side-by-side. It's a sham of a fraud of a travestry of a sham.
(Here's a clue for you Matty -- we're thrilled to be "out of touch" with the rest of the country. I'm happy to tell people that I live on a small island off the coast of America.)
oh really- an outrage you say??
...well this is old news to Gothemists. Mayor Mike need only refer to this blog's election day entries to see countless examples of sheer incompetence as experienced by NYer's at polling places all over town.
yes, this city really is out of touch with the rest of the country. I remember the rest of the country voting for Bush in 00, and 04 and NY voting for John Kerry. NY also voted for Bloomberg too! Insane New yorkers.
well, JenChungsBra, the people who voted for Obama but didn't have their votes counted probably aren't thrilled. They voted for their candidate, and their vote should be counted.
Don't portend to speak for all of NYC when you say "we're thrilled to be out of touch with the rest of the country." I don't disparage other regions of the US having different opinions about religion, politics, food, or lifestyle, and I don't dismiss the flyover states just because their population, on balance, has different concerns than I do.
NYC depends on the rest of the country, for food, to support Wall Street, for tourism, and for transplants who move here to work and keep real estate floating.
If you're happy to tell people that you live on a small island off the coast of America- implying that you are ashamed to be American- you don't speak for me. New York City isn't a small island off the coast of America, we're the freakin capital of America, and every true New Yorker knows it.
[ahhhhemmmmmmmm]
from Brave New Ballot, by Dr. Avi Rubin, 2006, pp. 11-12:
Around the turn of the twentieth century, the first lever voting machines came into use; inventor Jacob H. Myers proclaimed that he had designed the machine to 'protect mechanically the voter from rascaldom, and make the process of casting the ballot perfectly plain, simple and secret.' But even though they became the dominant voting mechanism for decades, these machines posted their own problems...those little parts were vulnerable to an ingenious attack. While programming the levers, a technician could break off a pencil lead in one of the gears, creating a very small jam. The machine would fail to register votes for a particular candidate, but there would be no obvious difference in how the machine operated. Eventually, the lead would wear away and fall out, leaving no evidence of fraud...Even now, despite all the technological refinements to the voting process, this simple, critical piece of the puzzle continues to prove elusive."
Hey, at least Illinois didn't vote for Michael Dukakis. Ahem!
Oh, and in reference to the political hack system, this is ugly inside politics stuff at it's worst. This one has nothing to do with republicans, this is purely partisan within the New York Democratic party.
Fortunately for Obama, he won 10 out of the last 10 states, so whatever votes Hillary managed to steal won't matter.
Jenchungsbra does not know what he is talking about.
1) You do not need to know anyone to get a job as a poll worker. Go to the Board of Elections website, sign up for the 2-hour class, and you're in. (I did, as did everyone else I've met there. For people without regular jobs, it's not considered bad money.)
2)There are not equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans because there are not nearly enough Republicans who sign up for the job. So they are forced to put Democrats like myself in the humiliating role of a Republican (yes, this is legal). As for being a major party member, the primary was for the major parties. Could a Democrat or Republican work in the Green Party's nomination process?
I urge you and anyone else who complains about the quality or the partisanship of the election process to step forward and work yourself. I did.
Jenchungsbra does not know what he is talking about.
1) You do not need to know anyone to get a job as a poll worker. Go to the Board of Elections website, sign up for the 2-hour class, and you're in. (I did, as did everyone else I've met there. For people without regular jobs, it's not considered bad money.)
2)There are not equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans because there are not nearly enough Republicans who sign up for the job. So they are forced to put Democrats like myself in the humiliating role of a Republican (yes, this is legal). As for being a major party member, the primary was for the major parties. Could a Democrat or Republican work in the Green Party's nomination process?
I urge you and anyone else who complains about the quality or the partisanship of the election process to step forward and work yourself. I did.
Here is the website to make it even easier for you:
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/pollworkers.html
Also please note that there is NO requirement to be a member of a party. Only a registered voter. So that makes three things you got wrong, Jenchungsbra (are you even old enough to vote?)
Here is the website to make it even easier for you:
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/pollworkers.html
Also please note that there is NO requirement to be a member of a party. Only a registered voter. So that makes three things you got wrong, Jenchungsbra (are you even old enough to vote?)
Here is the link for you to make it even easier:http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/pollworkers.html
Please note that there is NO REQUIREMENT TO BE A PARTY MEMBER, just a citizen. So that makes three things you got wrong, Jenchungsbra (and are you even old enough to vote?)
"JenChungsbra doesn't know what he's talking about."
Now there's a sentence you don't hear very often.
Actually, matty, you stupid pile of crap, New York's primary votes are awarded proportionally, which means that each candidate gets a number of delegates proportional to the number of votes they receive. Obama gets more votes? He gets more candidates, even if Hilary comes out ahead in the end. So, yeah, for the record, it does fucking matter, dumbass.
well that's what i mentioned in my first post. even if obama gets more delegates with the recount, nyc is in its own world - i mean the city voted for hillary clinton, a retarded women from the suburbs of chicago, overwhelmingly into the presidency of the united states. i would call that a disconnect.
good or bad that's how it is.
thanks for the insult however.
also my caps lock is broken.
And hey, if New Yorkers (there my caps lock goes!) think that they are somehow not part of the country do not think for a second that they would be missed - that is with Hillary fucking Clinton as their President.
Good luck with that on your island.
I'm not talking about pollworkers, you obnoxious dumbass. Pollworkers are the old ladies they hire two days a year to check signatures and make sure the curtain closes properly when someone pulls the big green handle inside the voting booth. I'm talking about the actual members of the actual Boards of Election, both city and state, and the full-time professional staffs they have working for them, with whom I had extensive professional dealings for many years, including appearances before the entire State board in Albany.
Do you know anything about that? It seems not. I hope you have fun earning your $100/day checking signatures twice a year, but really, who cares about the stupid pollworkers?
Okay wait, (from the previous Gothamist post) fewer than 400 people in Harlem voted? That's it? Pathetic.