Board of Elections Reform
While I was obviously personally pleased with the outcome of the 2012 elections and am honored to have been reelected to continue representing Manhattan's Midtown and East Side communities, I am deeply disturbed by the chaos that occurred at poll sites both in my district and throughout the city.
Long lines, broken machines, poorly-trained workers, and a shortage of necessary materials such as affidavit ballots made voting at many sites an extremely frustrating experience for too many New Yorkers – and few of these issues bear any direct link to the effects of the recent hurricane. I observed many of these problems firsthand at sites in my district, and I have also heard directly from more than 40 voters who experienced serious problems with voting and took the time to contact my office. I have compared notes with other colleagues from Manhattan and the rest of the city, as well as some counties outside the five boroughs, and can confirm that jurisdictions throughout the state reported similar election-day issues, although none seemed to reach the frustrating heights of our problems here in Manhattan.
It is clear that we need to fundamentally change the Board of Elections system and overhaul the process of election administration in our city. There are certainly many obstacles on the road to reform – but it is time to clear them. This election must be the wakeup call that pushes us to consider every option and demand deliberate but decisive reforms to improve our election process. Below are a number of possible changes that I will be exploring. Some of these ideas may be controversial, but everything should be discussed and everything should be on the table.
A nonpartisan Board of Elections: The State Constitution currently establishes the board as bipartisan in an effort to ensure it is not biased against either of the two major parties. Minor parties have long complained about this arrangement, but my major concern with it is that it has resulted in a system where officials and employees are chosen on the basis of party loyalty rather than administrative competence. It may be time to scrap the current system, a holdover from a bygone era, in favor of a nonpartisan, professionalized election administration agency. Many jurisdictions in other states around the country are quite capable of this – we should be, too.
The major obstacle to such a change is that it would require an amendment to the New York State Constitution, which would need to pass in two successive sessions of the legislature and then receive the voters' approval in a referendum. But it is time to start considering such changes, which could be implemented before the next presidential election if we start right now.
Civil Service requirements for election officials: Another way to address the issue of competence would be to establish some basic standards for board officials. This would also be likely to require a constitutional amendment, and one has been proposed by Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh (S. 90 / A. 10757). This amendment would allow the legislature to establish additional requirements for election officials. A competitive civil service examination system would go a long way toward ensuring that board officials have the skills they need to do their jobs.
Direct accountability to elected officials: Another possible direction to go would be to make Boards of Elections into agencies of counties or of New York City. The current structure leaves no elected official accountable for the failures of the Board of Elections. Mayor Bloomberg successfully fought for legislation changing the Board of Education into a mayoral department. While mayoral control has not solved every problem, and indeed has problems of its own, it does have the virtue of making one elected official – the mayor – answerable and accountable for those problems. The current Boards of Elections frequently act as if they are answerable to no one, and, to be fair, that is not too far from the truth.
Early voting / mail-in voting: Another possible way to address problems at poll sites is to reduce our dependence on them in the first place by pursuing additional, alternative methods of registering votes. By eliminating state constitutional restrictions on early voting, or by allowing vote-by-mail or other methods, more people could cast ballots without going to poll sites. A diverse group of states have implemented variations on this theme, and New York should explore them. I carry legislation (S. 424) which would establish a feasibility study of mail, telephone, and internet voting, and Assemblymember James Brennan sponsors a constitutional amendment to allow early voting (A. 5202). I remain concerned, however, that without addressing the fundamental problems with the Boards of Elections, they would have similar problems effectively administering high levels of early voting or alternative voting methods.
While all of these proposals have benefits and risks, my underlying point is that we simply must not accept the status quo. Our election administration system failed us on November 6th. I will be pressing state and city officials to engage on this issue and seriously explore how we protect our democracy by reforming our election process.