Morgan Pehme on the timing of the New York City primary.… [More]

  Hizzoner made it here. He didn’t need to make it anywhere else. New York City said its final goodbye this week to former mayor Ed Koch, a man who was king of the hill, top of the heap, even after he left office. Koch’s friends, colleagues and former rivals mourned his passing while sharing their favorite Koch stories with all of us. And for a few days this week, we thought again about one of New York’s biggest winners and… [More]

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn made an appearance Wednesday morning at a City Council oversight hearing on the New York City Board of Elections’ haphazard  performance on Election Day, and called for major reforms to the voting system, including early voting to reduce the confusion and long lines that many voters experienced in November. The hearing was the sixth of its kind that the Council has held in regard to the Board of Elections since 2010 and came after a… [More]

  There was no shortage of victories and losses this week, as voters cast their ballots for scores of candidates across the state and the government continued to grapple with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. From the North Country to Suffolk County, and President Obama on down, the Democrats’ triumphs added up. And though we won’t have a full account of the election’s champs and chumps until all the votes are counted and recounted, here they are: your winners and… [More]

As the polls closed last night, elected officials ripped into the Board of Elections for what they perceived to be a lack of preparation and an inability to make adjustments. “We’ve had complaints from constituents where districts have changed,” City Councilman David Greenfield said. “In one case, a constituent had been sent to three different polling locations, we confirmed where he had to go and they said ‘sorry you’re not in the books’ and he’d been coming there for 20… [More]

Frustration is high in Brooklyn as voters experienced long waits and rampant disorganization at several polling sites, all while the Board of Elections has remained silent. One site, Vanderveer Church, had an entire waiting room filled with voters sitting in chairs, waiting to get in line to vote. Some voters who were actually standing in the line had been patiently waiting for up to three hours to cast their ballot. “I was here this morning over an hour outside, waited… [More]

With Election Day rapidly approaching, the devastation from Hurricane Sandy could have residual consequences that may alter the outcome of local and federal elections. With many polling sites still without power and thousands of residents displaced due to flooding and damage to their homes, the New York City Board of Elections has been scrambling to come up with solutions that would allow voters to cast their ballot. With its Lower Manhattan offices incapacitated due to power outages and flooding, the… [More]

New York’s State Board of Elections thinks the city Board can change the elaborate vote-counting process that caused so many problems in the Charles Rangel/Adriano Espaillat primary race, without having to change the law. The Board has written a letter to the New York City Board, in advance of a Tuesday meeting,  advising commissioners that a change in how they count ballots can be done administratively, instead of through the legislature, according to the Citizens’ Union, which has been pushing… [More]