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VI. Recommendations

We have focused our recommendations on common sense reforms that can be undertaken by the Board of Elections or city. While substantial legislative reform is needed in Albany, there are many initiatives that could be undertaken here in the city in time for this year's municipal elections.

Improper Identification Checks

The Board of Elections must redouble efforts to ensure that voters are not selectively and improperly asked for identification. The Board should also publish and distribute to all poll workers, and have available at the polls, an extensive and inclusive list of acceptable IDs that can be used by voters. The Board has refused to do so. Our survey of Poll Site Coordinators demonstrates that the Board's current laissez-faire attitude is not working. We have included such a list in Appendix C.

Modernization of the Board of Elections

Allow voters to access their poll site and other info online. The poor design of the Board of Elections website has meant that voters can not find out the location of their poll site, a sample ballot or even if they are registered online. While it is embarrassing that the Board of Elections website crashed the day before and on Election Day, it has been more embarrassing when it is up and running.(21) Advocacy groups have been calling for these improvements for years. Modernization efforts are underway by the city and Board of Elections, but while the Board plans to place a poll site finder online, there are no plans for a voter to find out if they are registered or what their sample ballot looks like. That's a mistake and missed opportunity.

No more busy signals on Election Day. This past November, the Board's Helpline crashed, leaving voters unable to reach the Board with requests for poll sites, other inquiries or to report problems at the polls on Election Day. To their credit, this year the city has offered to fund a new call center for the Board and to take routine voter calls placed directly to the 311 system. Questions still remain about how this will be implemented however. For example, the Board is resistant to having calls forwarded to 311 if their own lines are at capacity. To reject this would be a disservice to voters. The Board should be held directly responsible if voters are not able to reach their Helpline on Election Day.

Poll Worker Performance

The Board of Elections must do a better job training and recruiting qualified poll workers. These "front line" employees play a crucial role in ensuring the smooth and fair administration of our elections and compliance with voting rights protections. Professional outside trainers should be employed to conduct classes and administer poll worker tests - those who fail should not be allowed to work at the polls. To ensure adequate numbers of qualified workers the city should offer comp time for non-essential city employees to work the polls. Special efforts must be made to recruit qualified translators and fully train poll workers on disability access requirements and voting rights mandates.

The central Board of Elections must be given more control and accountability over the hiring of poll workers. The patronage system for hiring Poll Inspectors is a State Election Law issue that needs to be changed in Albany. Meanwhile, the Board of Elections has announced creation of new four-person HAVA compliance teams in each of the city’s Assembly Districts. Each team would have two Democrats and two Republicans. The idea of having roving HAVA specialists is a good one, but it’s essential these poll workers not be chosen as patronage hires, selected by their respective County Leaders as the bulk of poll workers are. Instead, responsibility should lie with the Central Board to recruit, train, discipline and deploy these teams. The central board can then be held accountable for their success or any problems that may arise with them.

Better Notification and Information for Voters

Better design of the Board of Elections confusing poll site notification post card. While the content and information on the card is mandated by State Election Law, more resources need to be given to the Board of Elections to ensure better graphic design or to supplement this mailing with a more specific poll site card.

Voters need more frequent notice of their poll site location. State Election Law does not require voters to be notified of their poll site before each election. Voters typically receive their only poll site notification in August, more than two months before the General Election and far in advance of when most voters are paying attention to the election. The city should fund, and the BOE ensure, that every voter receive a supplemental poll site card listing poll hours and basic info before every General Election.

Old Voting Machines & A New Voting System

The decision on what type of voting system New York will buy should not be left in the hands of the patronage-ridden Board of Elections. The city should permanently reinstate the Elections Project, a non-partisan body of technical experts to oversee the contracting process for a new voting system, modernize the Board and ensure public participation in these efforts. A high profile and independent chair should be selected to oversee the process.

Public input is needed on any new voting system. Before selecting a new voting system, the city or Board of Elections should create a Voting System Authorization Panel including representatives from communities under jurisdiction of the Voting Rights Act, civic, disability and civil rights organizations, independent security experts, youth and seniors representatives and academics.

Additional resources to hire and retain qualified mechanics are needed. Base pay for mechanics is $24,937(22) . With any increased resources should come a reorganization of the Board's patronage system that controls the hiring (and disciplining) of nearly all board employees including technicians. A serious overhaul of the Board's hiring practices for selection of mechanics is essential given the upcoming switch to a new voting system.

More Resources and Accountability for the Board of Elections

The Board should be included in the Mayor's Management Report and required to provide meaningful statistical evaluations of its performance. Questions like the average time it takes for a mechanic to fix a broken voting machine after it was reported and how many poll workers failed to attend training classes should be tracked and made public. While the Board needs adequate and increased funding to do its work, the city must also make sure that money is spent wisely.

The Board should provide more analysis of its' performance to the public. For example, the Board of Elections should conduct and publish a detailed analysis of whether any voters were incorrectly directed to complete an affidavit ballot for each election because of ID requirements. Such an analysis can be used to identify poll sites and poll workers improperly implementing ID requirements. Other breakdowns should include the number of affidavit ballots completed by voters at the wrong poll site, a mistake easily attributed to a failure of poll workers to direct the voter to the right location.

Here's one of our monitor's comments on their attempt to get their poll site location through the email poll site request feature on the BOE's web site: " I emailed the BOE on E-Day asking where my poll site was to see how long it'd take to get a response. I got an email response on Feb. 28 saying the info would be coming to me via US Mail within the next few weeks-and never got anything in the US mail."

Testimony of John Ravitz, Executive Director Board of Elections in the City of New York, before the New York City Governmental Operations and Finance Committees, May 23, 2005.

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