Early Voting Is Set to Start in New York. What Could Go Wrong?
‘The State Kind of Dumped This On Us:’ Early Voting Stirs Anxiety in N.Y.
Think of the perils of an Election Day: broken voting machines, endless lines, frantic calls to extend voting hours. Now, imagine nine days of that.
ByJesse McKinley and Jeffery C. Mays
At long last, New York on Saturday will join the 38 other states that already allow some form of early voting. But with the anticipation comes an almost equal dose of concern over an array of possible problems.
Millions of dollars have been spent on new voting technology, necessitating the training of poll workers across the state. Schools that are normally closed on Election Day will be open during early voting, adding layers of security concerns for school officials and parents.
Election officials from Brooklyn to Buffalo have been scrambling to meet the demands of the new law, which calls for nine days of early voting, starting on Saturday and running through Nov. 3. Election Day is Nov. 5.
Good government groups have distributed fliers in libraries, gyms and mailboxes, and have kicked off an advertising campaign in New York City’s subways to trumpet the importance of early voting — “For the first time in history,” one ad reads, “New Yorkers have a choice” — but there is a real possibility that millions of voters may still not know that early voting is happening.
Despite the concerted push and the decades-long expectation, no one is promising a hiccup-free debut.
“Early voting,” said Michael Ryan, the executive director of the New York City Board of Elections, “is a work in progress.”
In many ways, this year’s off-cycle election is seen as a dry run before the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, which are expected to attract a large, perhaps even a record, voter turnout.
Many of those arriving at early voting locations will be introduced to new technology. Poll workers will be equipped with tablet devices that serve as electronic poll books. Once a voter’s registration is confirmed, a ballot individualized for the voter’s election district will be printed; the ballot must then be filled out and inserted into a scanner.
Given the typical perils of an Election Day — broken voting machines, endless lines, frantic calls to judges to extend voting hours — the prospect of stretching that experience over nine days may seem like a good deed destined for punishment.
But for supporters of the plan — which was passed by the State Legislature, controlled by Democrats — it is a potential game-changing solution to an entrenched case of voter ambivalence.
“Its simple: We want more people to vote,” said State Senator Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat. “So we’re giving them 10 times the opportunity.”
Much of the effort and expense involved in early voting has come directly from the counties, which are bearing additional costs to staff the nearly 250 poll sites across the state. But even in places where early voting has been heartily embraced, there is lingering frustration about the short amount of time allotted to get things up and running.
“The state kind of dumped this on us,” said Jeremy Zellner, the Democratic elections commissioner in Erie County, which is home to Buffalo, the state’s second-largest city. “It’s been very difficult to get this implemented in the field.”
In particular, Mr. Zellner said he was concerned about incorporating new technology like the electronic poll books, which use iPads or similar devices to instantly verify voters’ registrations and whether they have already cast a vote. This year’s budget included $14.7 million in funding for the purchase of such devices.
But how the technology will be used will differ from county to county. In Erie County, registered voters can go to any one of 37 voting centers to cast a ballot. But in Orange County, a major commuter hub northwest of New York City, voters cannot go to any of the county’s seven designated early polling places; each voter will have a designated site.
Orange County’s approach, which supporters of early voting say may discourage and confuse voters, is also being used in Westchester County, and at the 61 early voting sites in New York City, where the Board of Elections has long faced accusations of ineffectiveness.
Mr. Ryan, the board’s executive director, said the board decided to assign early voters to a designated location because it wanted to minimize the ballot variations — each election district has a unique ballot — that each center would have to produce on demand. This would also simplify a hand recount, if necessary.
In future elections, Mr. Ryan said, the board is aiming to allow early voters to cast a ballot at any polling site in their county.
He also noted another concern: Some of the early voting locations in New York City did not have sufficient electrical current to power the printers and tablets, requiring the use of high-powered generators.
Some parents are worried about security in schools, which will be open to voters for a full week while classes are in session. Gilberte Lal, a president of the parent-teacher association at her children’s school, Public School 116 in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan, said she was concerned that voters would be walking through the cafeteria during school hours to reach the polling site in the gym.
“I’m all for early voting, but our school is not a good site because it poses a real safety concern for the children,” said Ms. Lal, 39, who has created a petition on Change.org petition to compel the city to stop using schools for early voting.
The school’s principal, Jane Hsu, who has been working with the New York Police Department and officials with the city’s Education Department to create a safety plan, said she had been unable to finalize anything because she had not heard from the Board of Elections.
“We have been placed in a very difficult situation,” Ms. Hsu said.
Of New York City’s 61 early voting sites, 33 are in schools; for Election Day, 700 of the 1,200 sites are in schools. Mr. Ryan said the board would have a police officer on hand during the early voting.
Two City Council members, Keith Powers and Carlina Rivera, both Democrats who represent the enrollment area of P.S. 116, wrote a letter to Mr. Ryan this month asking him to reconsider the use of schools for early voting because of the potential disruption.
Some counties, including Westchester and Erie, have excluded schools from their early voting polling sites.
The overarching goal of early voting is to increase voter participation: New York has one of the lowest such rates in the country, with less than half of its 12.7 million registered voters participating in last year’s state legislative, congressional and governor’s elections. Even so, participation was up from 31.5 percent in 2014, and the highest since 1994, when 60 percent of registered voters went to the polls.
“The consensus of the literature, except for a few prominent examples, is that early voting only increases turnout by a few percentage points, but that voters really like it,” said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College in Portland, Ore., and the director of the Early Voting Information Center.
One benefit of introducing early voting in New York so late in the game is that the state can take advantage of improved technology, the professor added.
Technological advances aside, early voter turnout will depend on whether people know that the option now exists in New York. Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, which has been leading efforts to raise awareness, said that educating a public long accustomed to “16 hours, on the first Tuesday in November” had been a challenge.
“Some people are very aware of it,” she said. For others, Ms. Lerner added, “this is absolutely news to them.”
Other points of concern, however, have proved to be less daunting than election officials had feared.
Rachel L. Bledi, the Republican commissioner of the Albany Board of Elections, said she had worried that many poll workers, who are often retirees, might not be comfortable with electronic polling stations.
But Ms. Bledi has been pleasantly surprised.
“They say, ‘Oh, I FaceTime my grandchildren all the time,’” she said.
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