Brooklyn — Councilman David Greenfield has requested that the Federal government dispatch monitors to random polling sites to oversee the November 2nd general election in New York to ensure the preservation of New Yorkers’ rights to a secret ballot.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, Councilman Greenfield said, “I am calling on you to urgently address the serious privacy violations that took place during Tuesday’s New York primary elections. As you are aware, this was New York’s first election with new electronic voting machines and the outcome was catastrophic with respect to voter privacy.”

On primary day, Councilman Greenfield received numerous complaints from constituents and experienced first-hand how New Yorkers’ rights to a secret ballot were impeded by improperly trained poll workers. The grievances begin with the fact that poll workers failed to distribute the necessary privacy sleeves that were to accompany all ballots, which Councilman Greenfield, who had to demand a privacy sleeve, experienced when he voted on Tuesday. Without the privacy sleeve, voters were unable to hide their ballot selections while carrying the paper ballots from voting booths to the optical scanners.

Additionally, at various polling locations, including Councilman Greenfield’s, the new voting booths were incorrectly positioned toward the public, instead of a wall, leaving anyone behind the person voting able to view their ballot. Councilman Greenfield, like many voters, had to huddle over his ballot to ensure his vote remained private.

Finally, in numerous circumstances, poll workers—all of whom are appointed by district leaders, who themselves are running for election —would refuse to allow voters to enter their paper ballot into the optical scanner and instead demand that they – the poll worker – enter the paper ballot, with a voter’s ballot selections in full view. Sadly, this too happened to Greenfield who had to argue with a poll inspector to allow him to enter the ballot on his own.

“These allegations would have been shocking had I not personally experienced a complete breakdown of voter privacy in Tuesday’s elections,” Greenfield explained. “The secret ballot has been a fundamental right dating back to the Roman era. If our elections are to be fair, we must ensure the secrecy of our ballots and make sure that voters do not feel intimidated at their polling sites.”

(YWN Desk – NYC)