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Surging Absentee Ballot Demand Across New York Causes Delays, Plus Early Voting Begins
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jun 12, 2020
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By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jun 12, 2020
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New York voters have more options than ever when it comes to casting their ballot in the upcoming June primary election. Early voting begins on Saturday with 79 sites across the five boroughs and runs through Sunday June 21st. You can also vote in person on June 23rd at your assigned poll site. But most officials are urging voters to take advantage of a new provision that makes it easier to access absentee ballots for anyone who is sick from, or fears contracting, COVID-19.
The message has worked: New York has seen a spike in requests for absentee ballots, almost 10 times the number of mail-in ballots cast four years ago.
The very competitive 2016 presidential primary between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton counted just over 115,000 absentee ballots statewide. This year, as of June 10th, the state recorded more than 1 million applications for absentee ballots, with nearly 85% of the ballots issued. And those numbers will continue to climb since the deadline to mail or email a request isn't until June 16th, next Tuesday.
In New York City, the jump in absentee ballot demand was even higher. Based on data from the New York City Board of Elections sent to WNYC/Gothamist late Thursday, as of June 9th, the city received 491,437 absentee ballot requests. That represents about 13% of the 3.6 million voters who received applications in the mail from the city BOE. That amount is also roughly 21 times the number of absentee ballots cast in the 2016 presidential primary.
Their data also show some boroughs keeping up with demand for ballots better than others. Overall, the NYC BOE has mailed out about 65% of the ballots requested. The real outlier is the Bronx where they have only mailed about 40% of the ballots requested, with 62,675 applications and only 26,169 ballots mailed.
Brooklyn and Queens are making progress. State data from late May showed large backlogs but more recent city data shows Brooklyn with a nearly 67% fulfillment rate, or 151,477 applications received and ballots sent to 100,772. In Queens, the rate is just over 60%, with 118,406 ballots requested and 71,945 mailed to voters.
In Manhattan, with 141,743 applications, they have sent ballots to 106,130, for a 75% fulfillment rate. In Staten Island, they’ve mailed ballots to nearly 80% of the voters who have requested them, based on 17,436 requests and 13,848 ballots mailed.
Here are some answers to your voting FAQs:
What if I am one of those people who applied for an absentee ballot but haven't received it yet?
You have a couple options. You should be able to call your borough Board of Elections office and ask them to look you up and confirm whether your application has been received and your ballot has been mailed. BOE spokesperson Valerie Vasquez said the Board actually prefers for voters to tweet at them. Their Twitter account is very responsive. The handle is @BOENYC. Not an ideal solution, but an option.
Alright, so let's assume I received my ballot. What do I do now?
The envelope should contain your ballot and two envelopes. One is the oath envelope that you stick your completed ballot into. The other is a postage-paid envelope that you use to mail back that envelope containing your ballot. There are instructions for how to complete both, read them closely, but keep this in mind: use a pen or pencil, and DO NOT try to erase or change your selections. Any stray marks could ruin your ballot. If that happens, contact the BOE to get a new ballot (or envelope).
On that envelope you put your ballot into: there is a black box that says "Official Absentee Ballot" and then a bunch of fields. It should also say, for official use only because YOU DO NOT fill that out.
Most importantly, sign and date the envelope on the side where you seal it shut. That's crucial.
Do voters with disabilities have access to the same absentee ballot program?
Thanks to a legal settlement between the state Board of Elections and some disability rights advocates, they do. In New York City, if you go online to vote.nyc and click on the banner about absentee ballots, there is an Accessible Ballot application available. It uses screen reading software that allows a person to complete the application and either mail or email it back to the Board of Elections by June 16th. Then the Board is supposed to send the voter an accessible ballot that they can complete online.
Susan Dooha from CIDNY, the Center for Independence of the Disbled, one of the organizations that sued the state, noted that a voter needed access to the Internet to use this option.
“The voter needs to have access to the Internet, and have access to a printer and be able to get out and mail the envelope with their vote and be able to sign the outside of the envelope,” Dooha said.
Now, if a voter doesn't have access to this technology, but can go to their borough's Board of Elections office, there are ballot marking devices at BOE offices and at poll sites during early voting and primary day.
Can someone vote early or on primary day even if they applied for an absentee ballot?
Yes. Polls will be open across the city for early voting starting Saturday, June 13th, and stay open for nine days. Then they will close on Monday June 22nd, and reopen for Primary Day on the 23rd. Before the BOE begins counting any absentee ballots, which won't happen for seven days after the election, they will check to make sure a person didn't vote in person.
Election officials hope more people will use the absentee option to reduce social interactions during a pandemic. But that is your choice
Remember that you are assigned to an early voting site, like you are assigned to a poll site for primary day. Go to nyc.pollsitelocator.com to find your location and the hours it is open on the day you want to vote.
Given the risk posed by COVID-19, is the BOE taking any special precautions to make it safer to vote in person?
Yes, people are already required to wear masks and maintain social distancing inside any BOE facility. There will be acrylic shields at all the sign-in tables at poll sites and each voter will get their own pen to mark their ballot. And the now-ubiquitous hand sanitizer will be available.
Questions about voting logistics? Tweet us using #AskAReporter and our reporters will try to answer.
Tagged
absentee ballot
2020 election
early voting
election 2020
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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