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Runoff Election Turnout A Record Low
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 30, 2009
Modified Sep 30, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 30, 2009
Modified Sep 30, 2009
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Yesterday's runoff elections saw a total of 228,000 ballots cast, which the Post calls a "record low." Based on estimates that the runoffs would cost the city $14.4 million, that's about $63 per vote. Another way to cut the numbers: That's 7.3% of registered Democrats.
At some polling sites, workers saw few voters—in the Bronx, one site saw 108 voters all day and, in Brooklyn, a Greenpoint voter tells us he was the 45th voter at 7 p.m. (two hours before polls closed). A poll worker in Queens joked about how he was passing the time, "I was trying to quietly fake my own death."However, in Chinatown, which was probably pulling for eventual Comptroller victor John Liu, the Daily News reports, a "polling place reported 160 voters before noon."
The sight of the quiet polling sites prompted an 81-year-old retired sanitation worker and Korean War vet to complain to the Times, "People don’t appreciate what a privilege this is. Just look at other countries. Ahmadinejad, in Iran, who somehow gets 100 percent of the vote. Or Chávez. Or the guy in Russia, whatever his name is. It’s a joke."
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Chinatown
election 2009
john liu
runoff
runoff election
voter turnout
voting
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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