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Behold: This New Equipment Will Help New Yorkers Vote Early
By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Oct 23, 2019
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By
Gwynne Hogan
Published Oct 23, 2019
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Beginning this Saturday, for the first time in New York's history, voters will be able to participate in early voting. On Tuesday, in a warehouse in Sunset Park, state lawmakers surveyed the new equipment purchased by the New York City Board of Elections to enable early voting (and to streamline Election Day voting as well), including the 10,000 iPads that will replace the manual voting ledger system.
“New York City is going to have electronic poll books at all over 1,200 sites citywide and all 61 early voting sites,” said Mike Ryan, the Executive Director of the Board. “That will significantly help speed the process.”
Instead of thumbing through massive ledgers to find each voter’s name as required in years past, poll workers will type in a voter’s name on an iPad to pull up their registration information digitally and then have them sign the tablet. If you remember to bring your voter identification card mailed to you by the board, you can scan it to pull up your information automatically.
“You got one of these cards in the mail. Bring it with you to the polls on Election Day. This will allow us to identify you quickly in the electronic poll book,” Ryan said, though he added the card is not required.
Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers passed a slate of election reforms including early voting in the months after a miserable midterm election in New York City, where high turnout, a two-page perforated ballot, arcane election laws and the weather all collided to result in chaotic, long lines at polling places across the city.
State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who sponsored the early voting legislation in the Senate, said he hoped the reforms help to improve New York’s historically lackluster voter turnout.
“The goal of early voting was to bring New York from worst to first,” Myrie said. “We want to encourage every single New Yorker to vote early. The whole point of early voting is to make our democracy easy, accessible and convenient.”
Early voting will extend from October 26 to November 3rd from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the weekends, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the weekdays with extended hours on Tuesday and Friday. Look up your early voting location before going as it’s likely not your regular polling site. Election Day is November 5th.
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NYC Board of Elections
Gwynne Hogan
Gwynne Hogan is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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