New York City Board of Elections Selects Only 38 Early Voting Sites

The New York City Board of Elections on Tuesday approved 38 sites where voters will be able to case early ballots in future elections, beating the state's deadline by one day, and choosing four more locations than required under the state's law.

But the selection of these sites — and the hours they’ll be open — is likely to rouse anger from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who just one day earlier urged the board to open at least 100 polling places early across the city and pledged $75 million from the city budget to pay for them.

The mayor’s official Twitter feed was quick to respond to the board’s initial tally.

Here come the excuses. The Board of Elections is already short-changing New Yorkers at the polls.@BOENYC: You have until May 29th to make sure New York City has the 100 early voting sites we need.

We put up the money. Now. Do. Your. Job. https://t.co/9bWLHpjZ0a

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) April 30, 2019

Under state law, the elections board needed to designate assign at least 34 locations across the city as early voting sites: seven in each borough except for Staten Island, where six locations were required. (The minimum number of sites is based on the total number of registered voters in each county.) De Blasio and good government advocates held an event on Monday to urge the board to go further.

The city board’s commissioners opted to choose 10 locations in Brooklyn and seven each in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. The sites will offer voters the chance to cast their ballot nine days before the general election in November.

"This is a starting point for this conversation," said Michael Ryan, executive director of the city's Board of Elections. He indicated that the board would be open to the feedback from the mayor’s office and others — but only to a point.

The selection of the early voting sites followed an awkward episode: In February, the board listed the names, addresses and party affiliations of all the city's voters on its website. Then this week, days after WNYC reported the posting, the board suddenly removed the information. Ryan said the board made the decision Monday because of privacy concerns.

Also on Tuesday, the board also decided which sites would be open to which voters. Instead of allowing people to visit any early voting site in their county, voters will be assigned a specific polling place based on their address. The sites will also operate during set hours which will be open just a little bit more than the minimum required by state law.

Board members approved the following schedule:

Weekend hours:

Sat Oct. 26 and Sun Oct. 27 10 AM - 4PM
Sat Nov 2 and Sun Nov 3 10 AM - 4PM

Weekday hours:

Mon Oct 28 - Wed Oct 30 9 AM - 5PM
Thurs Oct 31 and Fri Nov 1 7AM - 8 PM

Board officials spent much of the day preemptively defending their decisions regarding early voting. In the morning,  Ryan testified for more than two hours at a City Council oversight hearing. He stressed that until the state signed early voting into law on Jan. 24, no infrastructure or regulations existed to guide localities when implementing the policy.

While Ryan said the board has been working with the city to determine how much money would be needed to pay for early voting — including site rental, equipment, poll workers and NYPD costs — he would not say whether the board would take up the mayor’s $75 million offer.

Instead Ryan sought to tamp down expectations about what the first election with early voting would look like. To help illustrate his point, Ryan brought a box full of binders to the hearing, research he said the city board has gathered from other states and municipalities that already have early voting. New York is the 38th state to implement it.

Ryan said every locality offered the city the same advice: voters who use early voting need to have a positive experience.

"The worst thing we could do," he added, "is get overly ambitious and then have it not work."