New York election disaster: Mayor 'confused'

New York election disaster: Mayor 'confused'

Voter rolls 'purged without explanation'

Published: 2 hours ago
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Douglas Ernst About | Email | Archive
Douglas Ernst is a staff writer for WND. He formerly wrote for the Washington Times. He also worked at The Heritage Foundation in its Young Leaders Program.




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It didn’t take long before New York’s primary election on Tuesday was marred by a voter-rolls bombshell, broken machines, long lines, missing Republican ballots in Harlem, and a trending #VoterSuppression hashtag on Twitter.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio found himself “confused” after radio station WNYC 93.9 FM revealed the city Board of Elections removed 126,000 Brooklyn Democrats from its rolls. The rest of the state dealt with pockets of polling stations that were closed or operating with broken machines.
“This number surprises me,” de Blasio said Monday, the station reported. “I admit that Brooklyn has had a lot of transient population – that’s obvious. Lot of people moving in, lot of people moving out. That might account for some of it. But I’m confused since so many people have moved in, that the number would move that much in the negative direction.”
Roughly 12,000 citizens were said to have moved out of the borough, 44,000 people were shifted from active to inactive voter status, and 70,000 voters were removed from the inactive list, the station reported. Inactive voters may cast a ballot within the city, but those whose distinction changed to “missing” cannot.
The mayor demanded Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan account for the numbers, but Bertha Lewis, director of the Black Institute, called for an investigation.
“There needs to be a probe. We know that 300,000-plus have been purged without explanation,” Lewis said, the New York Post reported.
Comptroller Scott Stringer said the city’s Board of Elections would be audited since “the people of New York City have lost confidence” in its ability to do its job.
“There is nothing more sacred in our nation than the right to vote, yet election after election, reports come in of people who were inexplicably purged from the polls, told to vote at the wrong location or unable to get into their polling site,” Stringer said.
Ryan claimed Monday that voter rolls merely seemed inaccurate because “Brooklyn was a little behind with their list maintenance tasks,” WNYC reported.
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“This will be out of the headlines in a matter of days and out of the minds of all but the most zealous people who will fight in futility until they have exhausted all energy and resources,” a man named Jack commented on the radio station’s website. “Welcome to American ‘democracy.'”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/nyc-election-disaster-mess-leaves-mayor-confused/#tOFAFqsctIewdtC7.99