De Blasio comes up with a plan – and $20 million – to reform ‘outdated’ Board of Elections
Follows voting snafus on Primary Day
Calling New York City’s Board of Elections (BOE) “outdated,” Mayor Bill de Blasio rolled out a list of proposed reforms on Monday. The action follows reports of polling site chaos and widespread voter disenfranchisement during last week’s Primary Election.
The mayor also announced that he will make $20 million available to carry out the reforms – but only if the BOE signs a binding agreement by June 1 to implement them.
De Blasio’s proposals include hiring an outside operations consultant, empaneling a blue-ribbon commission to “identify failures,” improving poll worker training, and providing new email and text notifications for voters.
The city can only do so much to reform the operation of the BOE, however. In his release, the mayor said that his administration will back state legislation that transfers responsibility of day-to-day operations and personnel decisions from the BOE commissioners – all political appointees — to “executive management.”