In State of the City, De Blasio Seeks to Strengthen City's Democracy

In his first State of the City address of his second term, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio sought to connect his fight against inequality — re-positioned as a fight for fairness — with a plan to fortify the city’s civic infrastructure.

While mayors traditionally use these speeches as an opportunity to unveil big new programs or development ideas, de Blasio doubled-down on his administration’s current initiatives, like expanding early childhood education, building affordable housing and creating more good-paying jobs.

Then de Blasio detailed the 10-point plan he's calling DemocracyNYC. In his address at the historic Kings Theatre Tuesday night, the mayor slammed the city's Board of Elections, saying it did not have a coherent plan to improve how it runs elections.

"You've heard of the notion of being customer friendly," de Blasio said. "Our voting system in this city is about as customer unfriendly as it can be."

The mayor plans to appoint a new Charter Review Commission to examine how to make the city government directly responsible for many of the Board of Elections' tasks, like outreach and disseminating information about elections. As an example, he talked about the problems voters face when the Board moves poll sites.

He said the Commission will also be charged with improving public funding for election campaigns while also seeking ways to encourage more New Yorkers to run for office.

The mayor's plan for improving elections also includes $500,000 a year to improve cyber security. In his address the mayor said American elections are "under attack" from foreign adversaries.

"My administration will share our cyber security expertise with the board of elections and invest the money it will take to ensure that when a New Yorker walks into a voting booth they can be sure their vote will be counted," he said.

De Blasio singled out Russia's attempts at penetrating the voting systems of multiple states around the country.

"That’s not a headline from an action movie from the 1980s," he said. "It’s happening right now in our country."