Council Speaker Christine C.

Quinn
Statement before the Committee on Governmental Operations
Oversight Hearing on 2010 Primary Day Election Failures
October 4, 2010

Good morning and thank you Chair Brewer for holding this
important hearing to discuss the Board of Elections’ and other city
agencies’ performance on Primary Day and the Board’s plans to
improve operations for future elections.

As we have all been taught, a cornerstone of our democracy

is a voter’s inalienable right to make his or her voice heard at the
ballot box. On September 14, by all accounts, this inalienable right
was compromised for far too many people. How many people? By
your own admission at the State Senate hearing, you do not know.
But the bottom line is however many people it was, the faith of
many New York voters has been shook.

It is our job collectively as the local government to restore

this faith and the process of restoration continues today, with what
I know will be a rigorous evaluation of what went wrong, what
went right, and how we can fix what went wrong. Our goal today
is to uncover why such systemic failures occurred and what
remedies are needed to get our system back on track.

On September 14th, New York City took a major step

forward in modernizing the City’s election system, moving from
traditional lever voting machines to electronic optical scan
machines. We are now closer to achieving the important goal of
full compliance with the Help America Vote Act. However, our
city’s transition into the 21st century was fraught with malfunctions
and missteps – my poll being one example of them.

From late poll site openings to poorly trained poll workers to

a lack of adequate measures to ensure voter privacy, it is clear that
many things went seriously wrong. It is unacceptable that any
voter should be disenfranchised as a result of bureaucratic
missteps. I find it sad and ironic that the very machines that should
be improving our election process caused so many serious and
troubling problems.

And beyond that, why do we still lack a clear picture of what

happened on Primary Day? Not just this Primary Day but by all
accounts, there is no a system that regularly analyzes every
Election Day, as a matter of course, to see what went right and

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what went wrong. How many machines did not work? How many
polls opened late? These are questions that should be answered
after every election, and these answers should be made public to
New Yorkers so they know what happened. I hope today’s hearing
will help us not only get to the bottom those questions as it relates
to the 14th, but more importantly, will help us put a system in
place that requires public disclosure and answers all questions
after every election.

I know that the Board has raised issues of underfunding. I

want to be very clear. I do not accept underfunding as an answer to
what went wrong on Election Day. Continuously citing fiscal
difficulties as an excuse for poor performance is simply a way to
skirt responsibility.

The Council’s review of the Board’s budget shows that OMB

has consistently fully funded the Board’s needs as they arise during
the year. Now you can say that’s wrong. You can say they should
give you the money up front but there is no evidence that the
Office of Management and Budget has ever not paid the Board of
Election’s bills. Providing $21.5 million in additional funds last
year is one example. It is also noteworthy that the Board was
unable to spend $13 million last fiscal year in funds earmarked for

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preparing the rollout of new machines this fall – and that $13
million was rolled over to the Board’s 2011 budget from 2010.

Simply put, the problems we saw on Primary Day are

unacceptable and many are issues unrelated to funding. The Board,
in fact, recently requested that the Council approve its request for a
$200 a day pay rate for those observing the pre-election testing of
the new voting machines. In order to adequately assess this
request, I expect a full accounting of the type and frequency of
problems that occurred on Primary Day. I also expect to hear the
detailed protocols the Board has in place, or plans to put in place,
to remedy these failures.

Chair Brewer and I sent a letter to the Board in advance of

this hearing and I expect that the Board’s testimony will include
clear and insightful answers to simple questions like:

 How many Police Department or Department of Education

personnel did not appear or appeared late at their assigned
polling sites on Primary Day?
 Why was the Department of Education only informed at 5:36
PM the day before Primary Day that the Board wanted the
custodians to come in early, after their worked day had

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 already ended, making the Department of Education unable
to find those janitors to tell them to arrive earlier on Primary
Day?
 What is the Board’s protocol for addressing agencies’
failures to appear on time at their assigned polling place?
 Exactly how many machines broke down on Primary Day?
How long did it take to repair them?
 How many machines were sent to polling sites without the
keys to open them?
 What steps are being taken to improve issues of voter
privacy?
 What steps are being taken to address widely reported
accessibility problems for disabled voters at poll sites?

At last week’s State Senate hearing, the Board’s Executive

Director complained that government officials, the press, advocacy
groups and the public should leave him alone and let him do his
job.

I would like to respectfully remind the Board that it is both

this Committee’s right and responsibility to undertake oversight of
the Board of Elections in the City of New York. Pursuant to its

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mandate under the City Charter, this body is committed to
conducting oversight in a rigorous and transparent fashion.

I expect that in today’s testimony the Board will answer the

critical questions that the Council has raised. I look forward to
hearing their specific plans for correcting the Primary Day failures
that voters faced throughout the five boroughs.

I also look forward to today’s testimony from representatives

of good government and advocacy groups as well as members of
the public, who I’m sure will provide the Committee with
important proposals for addressing many of the problems we saw
on election day.

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