ADAMS STREET – Two Brooklyn Supreme Court justices presided from a makeshift bench at the Brooklyn Board of Elections office yesterday, where they were handling voting matters and helping resolve problems like when poll workers submit special ballots.

The two judges, Hon. Ellen M. Spodek and Hon. David I. Schmidt, were assigned to oversee voting matters. Justice Spodek, a court reporter, court officer and other staff were on duty from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. with no breaks, until Schmidt and his staff took over and continued through 9 p.m.

Things were much calmer than in last year’s “Obamamania.�

“Things are going pretty smoothly,� said Board of Elections Commissioner Julie Dent, who was overseeing the office with administrator Rae Vergaro. “Things were learned from how it went last year.�

Spodek and Schmidt left Kings County Supreme Court, where some Brooklynites were voting on the ground-floor level, and crossed Adams Street to the Brooklyn Board of Elections, where a staff meeting room was converted into a courtroom.

The most common problem was when a person believes they are registered to vote but is not listed with the Board of Elections. That person can present their case to a judge and request a judicial order allowing them to vote.

“People from other countries who come here take it very seriously that they can vote,� Justice Schmidt said at the beginning of his shift. “Once I had a guy who came and insisted on his right to vote; he took three trains to get here. I like that. It’s refreshing.�

Justice Spodek mostly heard cases from poll workers.

“Poll workers were supposed to get special ballots in advance, not at the polling locations as usual,� Justice Spodek said. But not everyone got the memo and some had to come to the judge seeking help.

“We [also] had one person who had just become a citizen in August, and who filled out her registration but it didn’t go through. We made it so she could vote.�

—Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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