NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The New York State Senate is expected to hold hearings in the coming weeks on the New York City Board of Elections as calls are once again growing to reform the agency after yet another high-profile blunder.
"Each year the State Senate begins session by passing voting reforms that languished under the previous Republican majority, including early voting, automatic registration, and a better absentee voting process. The situation in New York City is a national embarrassment and must be dealt with promptly and properly," Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. "In the coming weeks, the Senate will be holding hearings on this situation and will seek to pass reform legislation as a result at the earliest opportunity."
There was an illegal voter purge in 2016, malfunctioning machines in 2018, mislabeled absentee envelopes in 2020 and now maybe the board's most embarrassing mistake yet: forgetting to clear out test ballots before tabulating results in last week's primary.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said this latest mishap demonstrates that the Board of Elections is "structurally broken."
The mayor said major reform is needed at the Board of Elections, something that can only be accomplished at the state level.
"If they were a modern, professional agency with accountability and transparency, that probably wouldn't have happened," de Blasio said.
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There is a bill in Albany looking to professionalize the BOE, making it accountable to city leaders.
"There's no oversight. There's no accountability. That breeds flagrant corruption at times. It breeds incompetence," said Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, who has sponsored the bill.
She argues this mistake has nothing to do with the new ranked-choice voting system but with the board's general dysfunction.
State Senator Liz Krueger said the fiasco once again demonstrates that the New York City Board of Elections is incapable of reliably administering elections.
"The number of screw-ups at every level of management that must have gone into the release of those incorrect numbers is mind boggling," Krueger said. "It is absurd for New York City to continue down this path election after election. It's time to enact the reforms we all know are so desperately needed to give New Yorkers full confidence in their elections."
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams hopes this scandal is the last straw.
"Hopefully the national nature of this will finally spur some changes," Williams said. "This is not an issue with ranked-choice voting, which the vast majority of New Yorkers enjoyed participating and felt like it strengthened their vote. This was a case of the Board of Elections and one person making a wildly incompetent error."
WCBS 880's Steve Burns reports the BOE remains something of a Frankenstein creature that was established by the state, funded by the city and controlled by the bosses of each county party, often leading to patronage and nepotism.
Susan Lerner of the good government group Common Cause New York says it's a relic of the 1800s.
"We're going to continue to advocate for that change, stronger management, professionalization and removing political parties from direct control," Lerner said.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who has been leading in the Democratic Primary for mayor, filed a lawsuit in Kings County Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking to ensure a fair and transparent election process.
"Today we petitioned the court to preserve our right to a fair election process and to have a judge oversee and review ballots, if necessary," Adams said in a statement. "We are notifying the other campaigns of our lawsuit through personal service, as required by law, because they are interested parties. We invite the other campaigns to join us and petition the court as we all seek a clear and trusted conclusion to this election."
The new unofficial results in the mayoral primary are due to be released Wednesday.