People wait in a line to vote at Madison Square Garden during early voting for the U.S. presidential election on October 24, 2020 in New York City. | Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the Board of Elections to deploy more voting machines at early voting sites and expand hours after a weekend of long lines for New Yorkers casting their ballots.
On Saturday and Sunday, the first time New York has allowed early voting in a presidential election, 193,915 city residents voted in person and lines at many sites stretched for blocks. The mayor and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in separate press conferences, called on the city elections board to better manage the influx of eager voters.
“Right now we’ve got a problem. The Board of Elections was clearly not prepared for this kind of turnout, and needs to make adjustments immediately,” de Blasio said at his daily press briefing Monday. “Long lines tell people to go home. That’s just the reality.”
While it’s too late to open more early voting sites, the mayor said the BOE has plenty of voting machines that won’t be used until election day and should set up more of them at early sites to speed up waits.
He also said hours should be expanded for next weekend from the current 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
The city is willing to foot the bill if the elections board — which is run by commissioners picked by political parties and not directly controlled by the city or state — can’t afford it.
“If the Board of Elections says they don’t have the money, let me say right now, the city of New York will provide the resources,” de Blasio said. “They cannot claim they will not have the resources. This is about doing the right thing and making voting earlier for all New Yorkers.”
The Board of Elections did not respond to a request for comment.
Ocasio-Cortez, who voted early in the Bronx, said if similar lines were seen in a swing state it would be a national news story.
“There is no place in the United States of America where two, three, four hour waits to vote is acceptable," she said at a news conference Monday. "And just because it’s happening in a blue state doesn’t mean that it’s not voter suppression."
De Blasio said he would “say it a little differently” and did not believe there was any intentional effort to suppress the vote.
“I don’t think there’s a conspiracy at the Board of Elections. I think there’s incompetence at the Board of Elections,” he said.
The board has long come under fire for its bungles, including sending the wrong ballot envelopes to 100,000 Brooklyn voters in advance of the current election. During a primary in June, many voters failed to get their absentee ballots in time, while voters who showed up in person were given incomplete ballots.
De Blasio again called for abolishing the BOE and replacing it with a traditional city or state agency. That would require state legislation.
“Let’s tear it down and start over again,” he said.
De Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray plan to vote early on Tuesday. There are early voting hours every day through Sunday. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, anyone can also vote absentee, and can mail those ballots or drop them off at a poll site without waiting in line.
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