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Polling Place Shuffle Causing Primary Election Headaches
By
Garth Johnston
Published Sep 13, 2012
Modified Sep 13, 2012
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Sep 13, 2012
Modified Sep 13, 2012
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Have you voted yet today? (Yes, today is a primary election—you should know that by now!) We ask because if you haven't voted yet you might want to take a minute and be absolutely sure of your registration and polling place. Some people are having some issues out there—you may not have moved, but thanks to redistricting your polling place might have!
For example, after having some serious issues this morning, reader Marisa Butler wrote in to us to express concern about what is going on:
Everyone I’ve heard from has had trouble voting today. They changed many polling places without notifying anyone. The place we’ve voted every election for the last four years was changed without notification. When we arrived at the new place, they almost didn’t let us vote. A call to the board of elections didn’t solve anything. No one knew what was going on or what to do. Other people were turned away and had similar stories. To add to the confusion, the primary was on Thursday. Luckily this was only a primary.
I’m in district 57, Hakeem Jeffries’ old seat.
And a quick search on Twitter implies that Butler wasn't exactly alone today:
Tried to vote today @ps234 in Astoria -no voting poll was set up."Hope is not a #conspiracy"said the school employee. #govote
— viviane aquino (@vivianeaquino) September 13, 2012
@colvinj I live in Inwood/WashHeights I had to go to 3 different polling places before I was able to vote this morning
— Caitlin Burns (@Caitlin_Burns) September 13, 2012
Went to vote in the primary.Polling place wasn't there. No note. No notice. Thank u NYC bd of elections
— donna lieberman (@JustAskDonna) September 13, 2012
Just tried to vote and discovered they changed my polling place. #democracy
— Khoi Vinh (@khoi) September 13, 2012
@broadwayimpact I'm at my polling site, am being told I can't vote here. I'm at the right place per NYS site. twitter.com/marcuswoollen/…
— Marcus Woollen (@marcuswoollen) September 13, 2012
See what we mean? So, again, you really ought to triple check your polling places before you head off to vote today because things have definitely been rejiggered! After eleven years voting in the same polling place (where our parents had been voting for even longer) we suddenly today found ourselves with a new place to vote.
Of course, according to the Board of Elections you really should have known about this anyway, as they tell us
"All voters received a legally required information notice in early August informing them of the upcoming dates of the Election as well as their poll site. This notice told them that as a result of redistricting their poll site may have changed and prominently displays their new poll site information. If there was a change of their poll site AFTER said notice, a postcard was mailed informing them of this as well."
Now, we certainly didn't get that important bit of legally required snail mail, but what are you going to do? Anyway, better off finding out about your new polling place now than before the general election in November!
Meanwhile, if you have voted, here's hoping that the Board of Elections doesn't lose any of the votes you cast!
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election 12
polling place
primary
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Garth Johnston
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