The STATE OF OUR DEMOCRACY:

VOTING IN NEW YORK CITY

AND

THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS

A Policy Report:

The Past, Present, and Hopeful Future of New Yorkers and the Ballot Box.

My thesis policy report is my greatest pride and accomplishment. I was incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to vigorously research what I care so deeply care about: Democracy and New York City. I’m grateful and deeply inspired by the prolific voting rights advocates that took the time to engage with me about my report. Without their help, I’m certain I would not feel as accomplished as I do about the final product.

Thank you to all involved, and Thank You Reader, for taking the time to engage with our democracy.

  I would love for my research to be insightful and beneficial to your own work.

Please be sure to cite my hard work.

 INTRODUCTION

 
 

“This right to vote is the basic right, without which all others are meaningless”

Lyndon B. Johnson upon the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

 

American’s right to vote is the nucleus of freedoms the Founding Fathers ingrained into the identity of the United States. When this right was not promised to all Americans, many sacrificed their lives to ensure suffrage was inclusive of all races and genders. Historically, American democracy has always been a work in progress. In today’s environment, unfortunately, we have found ourselves in an era of democratic fragility. Voting rights and protections around the country are being dismantled rapidly. In 2020, Americans were deprived of a peaceful transfer of power for the first time since the Civil War, and in real-time, we watched an insurrection onto the United States Capitol attempting to overturn the presidential election results.[1] [2]

 

New York City has always been a leader in innovation, culture, and diversity. From the Brooklyn Bridge to Ellis Island, the massive skyscrapers, and its immense population density, it has defied the status quo.[3] In this constantly evolving city, however, there is one imperative function that seems to remain frozen in time: The New York City Board of Elections.

To quote a New York Times article,

“New Yorkers have endured the incompetence of the New York City Board of Elections for so long, that complaints on the subject blend into the background noise of life in a megalopolis, alongside gripes about overstuffed subway cars and putrid piles of sidewalk trash.”[4]

Since its establishment in 1901, the New York City Board of Elections (NYC BOE) has absorbed a persistent flow of scathing criticisms. For decades, the NYC BOE has become synonymous with terms like “rampant patronage”, “chronic dysfunction”, “incompetence” and “indifferent to the best interests of the public”. [5] [6] [7] [8] The Board’s historical track record speaks for itself with instances of including 130,000 accidental test ballots in the preliminary count for the 2021 Mayoral primary election, purging 200,000 eligible voters from the registration rolls in 2016, excessive mail-in ballot disqualifications in 2020, and reports peppered throughout the century of malfunctioning machines, hours-long lines, and failures to provide appropriate language assistance.[9] [10] [11] [12]

While some of these malfunctions have been simple clerical errors, some have directly disenfranchised voters. More recently, “Big Lie” promoters have seized on these events to fuel their disproven claims of voter fraud. After the NYC BOE sent out mislabeled and misaddressed ballots in 2020, Donald Trump cited the Board as a fraudulent mess.[13] After the 2021 inclusion of test ballots, Tucker Carlson pointed to the invalid ballots as “fake votes” and said, “New York City’s Elections are undemocratic chaos”. [14]

 

For better or for worse, election administration in the United States has become a vogue topic of discussion. While the dispute of erroneous claims of voter fraud proceeds to divide the country, it has also presented a valuable opportunity to analyze the minutiae of the electoral process. While a perfect election system has yet to reveal itself, it is an opportune moment to investigate how elections can evolve to better meet the modern needs of the American people.

  With elections in the national spotlight,

We must prioritize answering the decades of pleas to reform the New York City Board of Elections.

 
 

To quote the young poet, Amanda Gorman,

“We know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation”.

History has always had its eyes on New York City.

We have the power to break the cycle of disenfranchisement and hand the next generation of voters a democracy they are proud of.  

 

Please remember to cite my work.