NEW YORK, NY (09/27/2018) (readMedia)-- Today, the New York City Board of Elections (NYCBOE) will certify the election results from the September 13th primary, during which Common Cause/NY and its partners received hundreds of calls, emails and tweets from New Yorkers who experienced trouble voting.
In response, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights representing Common Cause/NY issued a 30-day notice to the Board for potential violations of the 2017 settlement which resolved the lawsuit over the purging of 200,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the presidential primary in April 2016. In the settlement the Board agreed to conduct thorough annual audits of lists and adopt a procedure to ensure eligible voters are not removed in error.
"We've collected a variety of complaints from voters, but the most concerning come from New Yorkers who'd voted as recently in the June primaries and then could not vote in September. Some appear to have been involuntarily dis-enrolled from their party, and others showed up at their poll site to find their names mysteriously missing from the rolls," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY. "Either way, if the Board has violated its settlement, we will hold them accountable and ensure that voters get the justice they deserve."
On Primary Day two weeks ago, 27% of New Yorkers turned out to vote – almost double the amount from the 2014 gubernatorial sprimary.
Of the 1.5 million people who came out, too many experienced problems at the polls.
Over 125 New Yorkers shared their election day story with Common Cause/NY on or after the primary. 70% of voters reported having trouble on election day:
Common Cause/NY and its allies issued a 30-day notice of concern to the NYCBOE that the list maintenance activities in advance of and during the September 13 primary election were not sufficient to ensure compliance with the decree of the 2017 settlement, and may not have complied with the NVRA and applicable New York Election Law.
Additionally, advocates from Let NY Vote pushed for real election reform like early voting, which would allow New Yorkers more than a single day to cast their ballot, and electronic pollbooks, which would make it easier to find voters' names, among others.
"LatinoJustice PRLDEF is committed to advocating on behalf of Latino voters, and ensuring that all Latino citizens are able to fully engage in our democracy," said Jorge Luis Vasquez, Jr. Associate Counsel LatinoJustice PRLDEF.
"Primaries are when individual voters have some of the strongest influence, yet it is during New York's primaries that voters face the most problems. Instead of leading the nation in electoral progress, New York is used as an example for other states to move backward by conducting similar roll purges, reducing hours, and adding increasing administrative burden to their voters," said Amy Torres, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC). "Tedious paperwork, lack of language access, and voter roll purges have long suppressed the voices from communities of color, immigrant, and low-income communities. It is time for New Yorkers to come together to demand the State bring every voice to the table instead of upholding practices that rip the rug from beneath us."
"The New York Civil Liberties Union continues to receive and investigate reports from New Yorkers who were unable to participate in last month's primary," said NYCLU Legislative Counsel Erika Lorshbough. "New York City voters describe broken ballot scanners and poorly informed poll workers, unauthorized party enrollment changes, misprinted paper poll books omitting active and eligible voters, and possible improper purges of voters. The right to vote is central to our democracy and society, and the New York City Board of Elections must take decisive steps to ensure these irregularities do not recur on November 6th."
Background:
In October 2017, the New York City Board of Elections (NYCBOE) settled a lawsuit with Common Cause/NY, admitting it broke state and federal law when it purged nearly 200,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the presidential primary in April 2016.
In the settlement, NYCBOE agreed to:
This year, Let NY Vote, formerly known as Easy Elections NY, formed as a statewide coalition of organizations & grassroots groups fighting to modernize New York's elections. The goal is to pass simple solutions in 2019 to improve our elections and remove barriers to registering and voting for all eligible New Yorkers.
The Let NY Vote coalition is made up of over thirty organizations, nonprofits, and labor unions, including Common Cause/NY, Public Citizen, New York State United Teachers, SEIU 32BJ, RWDSU, CWA District 1, as well as the statewide NAACP and the National Action Network, grassroots organizations, faith groups, civil liberties, reproductive and immigrant rights, criminal justice and re-entry groups, New American, and the LGBTQ community. A full list is available at letnyvote.org.