By Bronte Price, PoliticKING
Bernie Sanders campaign cried foul on Tuesday following election results which were not in favor of the Vermont senator. According to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, his voter complaint hotline "received more than 700 complaints from voters across (New York state)" before 4 p.m. He added that the same office had heard only around 150 on the day of the 2012 general election. Bernie Sanders’ campaign called the reports of voting irregularities “a disgrace,” after it was reported that the city Board of Elections stripped more than 125,000 Democratic voters from the rolls. "It is absurd that in Brooklyn, New York -- where I was born, actually -- tens of thousands of people as I understand it, have been purged from the voting rolls," Sanders said during a rally at Penn State.
As of 3:50, @AGSchneiderman voter hotline received > 700 complaints from voters across NYS. Context: Office received ~150 for '12 general.
— Nick Benson (@nick_benson) April 19, 2016
Karthik Ganapathy, a Sanders spokesman, called the state's handling of the primary a shameful demonstration. "From long lines and dramatic understaffing to longtime voters being forced to cast affidavit ballots and thousands of registered New Yorkers being dropped from the rolls, what's happening today is a disgrace," he said.
Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York, condemned the voting irregularities and called on voting officials to reverse the problems.
"It has been reported to us from voters and voting rights monitors that the voting lists in Brooklyn contain numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists," de Blasio said in a statement Tuesday. "The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed," he said.
Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan, denied foul play saying, "We're not finding that there were issues throughout the city that are any different than what we experience in other elections."
He said that of the 126,000 Democratic voters who were taken off from the rolls in Brooklyn, more than 12,000 had moved out of borough, and 44,000 more had been marked as inactive after mail that had been sent to their homes bounced back. Additionally, 70,000 were already marked as inactive and had been removed after having failed to vote in two successive federal elections or respond to cancel notices.
"Since the eyes and ears of the world are on New York, issues that are relatively routine for any election are receiving greater scrutiny," he added.
Here’s what Jesse Ventura has to say about voting rights:
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC, its affiliates, or its employees.
