Results tagged “boardofelections”

How much do our elected officials in Albany get by on their salaries as legislators and how much of their regular expenditures come from campaign money raised for nonexistent election battles? The Daily News has an extensive piece today investigating just what state senators and assemblymen are using their campaign funds for—all within the scope of the law.

We have our own protracted election drama in the city: The Board of Elections is still counting ballots in the State Senate race between incumbent Frank Padavan (R) and City Councilman James Gennaro (D). Padavan leads by over 500 votes now, but now over 8,000 absentee and emergency paper ballots are being tallied amid charges from the Democratic Party like how the Republicans are only challenging votes of minority voters. (A judge will eventually decided what happens with the ballot.) Well, at least our BOE doesn't have to deal with the Senate recount in Minnesota--they use Scantron-style voting forms and some voters were messy-- or wrote in "Lizard People" while still filling in a circle for Al Franken. See the zany ballots here.

“No buttons. No posters. No leaflets. No. None.” That's the friendly reminder New Yorkers are getting from the city's Board of Elections in regards to showing your colors when you head to the polls this Tuesday. This doesn't just apply for your "I Support Joe the Plumber" contemporary shwag. A NY Times reader was asked to remove her four-decade-old “Lindsay for Mayor” button on a previous Election Day. And despite a brouhaha earlier this week over concern about the preparedness of the BOE, Mayor Bloomberg tells us he expects all systems to be a go come Tuesday.

Mayor Bloomberg criticized the city's Board of Elections, after BOE officials said Election Day could be chaotic, "This is a joke...this public is badly served by this agency as any city or state thing I've seen."

Over the weekend Rock the Vote was accused by the New York Times of botching the registration of possibly 40,000 would-be New York voters. According to the article, the online registration forms for New Yorkers on Rock the Vote's website are addressed to the New York State Board of Elections, which does not handle voter registrations. As a result, the Board of Elections has had to redirect over 100,000 forms to the county election boards, and now there's a huge backlog. Today Rock the Vote is firing back at the Times, declaring in a statement that "they got the story dead wrong":

Twice in writing the Board of Elections confirmed that Rock the Vote gives registrants the correct mailing address. See the emails here. And today, the EAC again confirmed that our system is "current and correct."...A modest journalistic effort would have revealed what Rock The Vote has been warning for some time: elections officials nationwide are not prepared to process the enormous number of new voter registrations that have been submitted in this election cycle.

But Robert Brehm, a spokesman for the state board, tells City Room, "It would have been faster for those organizations to direct people to mail them to their counties." A spokeswoman for the city's Board of Elections says they received almost 211,000 registrations in the last week of registration—not exclusively via Rock the Vote—and many of them cannot be processed because they miss crucial information. (Some states permit same-day registration and voting, but not the Empire State.)

If you are one of the 100,000 people in New York who attempted to register to vote this year via Rock the Vote, you may want to check in on the status of your registration. The Times reports that each and every one of those forms was sent to the wrong address, leaving the state's election board in chaos as they attempt to get the forms to their home county, where they should have been sent originally. While Rock the Vote denies responsibility, the Times does little to veil cynicism toward the organization on everything from the bravado they use in taking credit for getting out the youth vote to their corporate partnerships with AT&T and XBox. With real concern that "if anyone is not going to follow up on this, it would be the younger demographic,” we strongly recommended that anyone who used Rock the Vote to register check in with the NYC Board of Elections site to find out the status of their registration. Election Day is only ten days away!

The voter registration in NY State is today. If you haven't registered yet, the AP explains, "Only completed voter registration forms postmarked by midnight and received no later than October 15th will be valid for the upcoming general election." Additionally, if you've moved to a new county you need to reregister from your new address (and if you've moved within the county, you don't need to reregister by you should update your address with the board of elections). Here's the state Board of Elections website, the NYC Board of Election website, and the postal service's website so you can look up post offices. Additionally, the NJ deadline is October 14 (state Division of Elections website; more info) and Connecticut's is October 28 (state Secretary of State website).

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.