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Poll Worker Predicts A "Disaster" For This Year's Voters
By
Lauren Evans
Published Aug 12, 2013
Modified Aug 12, 2013
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By
Lauren Evans
Published Aug 12, 2013
Modified Aug 12, 2013
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This circus theme of this year's mayoral race apparently isn't just limited to the candidates—it may also extend to the polls themselves, at least according to poll worker Allan Feinblum, who says that grueling hours and the return to antiquated voting machines will all-but-ensure mayhem come September 10th, when the primary will take place.
Feinblum, 73, will be one of 30,000 New Yorkers manning the polls for this year's election, and he said that based on what he's seen so far, voters and poll workers alike are in for a major headache. It's certainly already a headache for him—workers are required to attend trainings that last from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., with only two five-minute bathroom breaks in between. Poll workers are largely comprised of retirees like Feinblum, many of whom haven't held down a desk job in several years and are no longer used to staying in one place for such an extensive period of time.
Furthermore, workers are expected to digest several sets of reading materials on rules and procedures, which total nearly 400 pages, as well as a quiz that they must pass in order to proceed. That's the idea, anyway, said Feinblum—except for one thing: The instructor gave the workers the answers to the test before it was even handed out.
The city recently spent $95 million on new state-of-the-art voting technology, but Feinblum is worried about the old, 100-plus year old lever voting machines, which will be used instead. (The Board of Elections having dismissed the new technology as "cumbersome" and ill-equipped to handle the runoff election that will likely accompany the primary.) But the old machines come with their own mammoth issues: Feinblum said he was told that the machines will malfunction 30 percent of the time, and that workers should be to issue paper ballots if—or, more likely, when—the machines break.
"Last year was a disaster, but this will be even worse," Feinblum predicts, citing the hours-long lines and widespread snafus that snarled the 2012 presidential elections.
Nevertheless, Feinblum said he plans to go through with the job, if not for the money—poll workers can make up to $750 if they attend all the required trainings and each set of elections—but because he feels the polls need more passionate people like him to man the tables. He's worked the polls before, in 2009, and knows what's expected of him. Nevertheless, he said, he wishes conditions were more humane.
"You have a bill of rights as a voter, but there's nothing about the people working in the polls," he said. "This year is like a perfect storm."
The Board of Elections has not yet responded to a request for comment, but we'll update this story if we hear back.
Tagged
Election 2013
lever machine
mayoral race
polls
voting
original
Lauren Evans
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