NYC Mayoral Primary Vote Counting Botched

I guess no lessons were learned from the election cycle in Fall 2020. Seems the nation's largest city can't conduct vote counting for its mayoral primary race without screwing up the ballot processing.

NYC mayoral primary race thrown into chaos as BOE botches vote count

I would expect that, with so much negative attention focused on the 2020 election cycle for alleged voting irregularities, that going forward, any election of significance at the local, state or federal level would be on alert with how it conducts vote counting, and to understand the climate of scrutiny and hyper-focus on election conduct.

The Democratic primary race for mayor was thrown into chaos Tuesday as the city Board of Elections appeared to have botched the count amid the city’s first ranked-choice election — adding 135,000 pre-election “test” ballots that hadn’t been cleared from a computer.

According to a BOE statement Tuesday night, “it has determined that ballot images used for testing were not cleared from the Election Management System.


Preliminary results released earlier in the day showed a total of 941,832 ballots cast for mayor, an increase of more than 140,000 from the 799,827 that were counted on June 22, the day of the primary.

Sounds like in this case, "test" ballots (???) were introduced in the vote pool and counted as actual, legitimate ballots. The insertion of the "test" ballots caused a large discrepancy between the total number of ballots noted on the eve of the primary and the total number observed during the official count operation.

It could be an "honest mistake" and not anything sinister, but the NYC BOE does have a track record of shady behavior in this regard, so the choices are, they either continually screw up the vote counting process, ~or~ there are nefarious dealings going on in the BOE. Which choice comforts you the most?

The disarray marked the latest in a long line of screwups by the BOE, which admitted violating election laws by purging 200,000 voters from its rolls before the 2016 presidential primary.

During the November 2018 midterm elections, some voters were forced to wait hours to cast their ballots because high humidity jammed new scanners that cost a total of $56 million.

And during the 2020 presidential primaries, the board disqualified 80,000 ballots because officials weren’t prepared to handle the deluge of mail-in votes cast amid the coronavirus pandemic.

I guess you could look at it as either a good thing that the NYC BOE is working out the kinks during local elections, before mistakes like this cause issues in later elections,

~or~

the cynical view is that the BOE is piloting new schemes and techniques for vote harvesting, practicing before the "big game"

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened


"the cynical view is that the BOE is piloting new schemes and techniques for vote harvesting, practicing before the 'big game'"


Or even more cynical:


BOE is preparing the public for democrat's strategy to explain 'missing' ballots after 2020 audit results are published.

Or was it that the wrong person was winning and they had to 'find' a problem with the votes?

If a democrat questions the process, did it really happen, or is it like that tree in an empty forest?

Genuinely curious.

originally posted by: Nunyabizisit
a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened


"the cynical view is that the BOE is piloting new schemes and techniques for vote harvesting, practicing before the 'big game'"


Or even more cynical:


BOE is preparing the public for democrat's strategy to explain 'missing' ballots after 2020 audit results are published.

Dems:

"you see we umm, we umm think, well maybe, ok, we know it had to be the Russians, yeah the Russians stole them so we can't prove Biden won. I will have to circle back to you on all this".

originally posted by: butcherguy
Or was it that the wrong person was winning and they had to 'find' a problem with the votes?

They sure seemed to find a bunch that seemingly were 99.9% Biden votes like magic in several cities in key states. 2:00 AM suggests last minute ballots were shipped in to get the win for the D teams players.

All this mess means one democrat candidate is not socialist.

Sounds like they got caught to me.

originally posted by: Trueman
All this mess means one democrat candidate is not socialist.

I hear the guy who won is a Pro-police Democrat? Can't have that!

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Well, first I would have to say that rank choice voting is a crock anyway. But seriously, who cares. The truth is that NYC is a one-prty City like all the others in the US; the Democrat Party Primary is the only contested election in the City and the results will simply produce another Democrat. And the NYT givers their endorsement makkng the Primary nothing more than a show election like the ones in the USSR back in the day.

This is hardly newsworthy

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

My insider source tells me that regardless the name on the ballot, Biden keeps winning.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

THere are some arenas that there are not "honest mistakes". Cash handling, contract law, and elections seem to be 3 big ones.

There is nothing "cynical" to thinking that the BOE is a cabal of crooks and cheats.

It's called REALITY, baby.

originally posted by: butcherguy
Or was it that the wrong person was winning and they had to 'find' a problem with the votes?

BINGO!

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: Trueman
All this mess means one democrat candidate is not socialist.

I hear the guy who won is a Pro-police Democrat? Can't have that!

Yep, can't let it slip that the anti-police crowd is really only a small minority. I read somewhere that even among African Americans, only 19% want less police presence.

a reply to: DBCowboy

All I know is that on March 18, 2024, Putin is going to be beyond pissed when he wakes up to find that Biden beat him.

They did exactly what they intended to do 😎

=opportunity.rigging 😎

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: Trueman
All this mess means one democrat candidate is not socialist.

I hear the guy who won is a Pro-police Democrat? Can't have that!

I heard he was a Trump supporter too.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

True story, which I'll have to lay out another time in a thread. I think many will find interesting from a government corruption and political perspective.

Anyways, in 2018, I filed corruption charges in the City of New York, based on what I saw in my work. I got railroaded as a result from the team I was working on. Hard. I left as a result to a new job, and very shortly after this happened:

nypost.com...

2018 "data error." I know many of the people involved in this, and some were those who railroaded me. It was a blessing because I avoided another round of highly questionable situations. I wouldn't be surprised if the same loose group of orgs is likely involved in the new fiasco. Also, I worked in the same building right after with the BOE.

"The state Board of Elections is demanding Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new “Democracy NYC” office provide answers about a botched mailing to 400,000 city voters — or face a subpoena for the information.

In a letter fired off Wednesday to “Chief Democracy Officer” Ayirini Fonseca-Sabune, election board co-executive directors Todd Valentine and Robert Brehm said the data has to be delivered by noon Friday.

They said their office has received “a number of complaints from registered voters” — as has the city’s elections board, which reported getting 1,600 calls about the confusing mailing from the city.

SEE ALSO

Botched 'inactive' voter mailer cost taxpayers $200K
In its letter, the city told voters they had been placed on the inactive roll and might have a problem casting a ballot on Election Day, Nov. 6.

But many voters who got the letter told officials they were regular, active voters and couldn’t understand what was going on.

“From the inquiries we received, this information is inaccurate and misleading,” Valentine and Brehm wrote. “Further, it has been reported that many voters listed as ‘active’ received this letter, causing much confusion.”

The state board is demanding: the total number of letters sent, the names and addresses of the voters who got the letters, and a copy of the data used by the city vendor, Chicago-based Civis Analytics, to compile the letters.

Civis Analytics was founded by Dan Wagner, chief analytics officer for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign.

The board said it needs the information “to best determine how to address this matter and in lieu of a subpoena pursuant to [state] Election Law.”

“Going forward we advocate that Democracy NYC vet elections communications with the State of City BOE and utilize the New York State voter register registration database when engaging in a project that is for a election purpose,” Valentine and Brehm wrote.

The botched mailing cost taxpayers $200,000.

City officials have said Civis did indeed pull voting data from the state Board of Elections but then “scrubbed” those records to create a more “accurate” list of “inactive” voters.

Messages left with the mayor’s office were not immediately returned."