In the upcoming democratic primary, State Sen. Joe Lentol says votes should be cast by absentee ballot only due to the coronavirus pandemic. Eagle photo by Mary Frost
I voted early for the very first time on Monday — and it was amazing.
As a jaded Brooklynite who has voted in almost every election for the past 20 years, I found the difference between regular Election Day voting and early voting to be revelatory. (Kind of like landing at San Diego International after taking off from LaGuardia.)
Early voting is the way voting is supposed to be. The energy is high, and election staffers are friendly. The process is computerized from beginning to end and everything works. You just tell the poll workers your name and they look up your information on their tablets. No more paper books.
In Brooklyn, there are 18 early voting sites set up (61 across the city), and yours may be different than your usual voting place. Don’t panic. You can easily find out where it is by typing your address here. If that’s not convenient, call 311.
My early voting site was the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice at 283 Adams St. in Downtown Brooklyn. It was easy to find the place: Red, white and blue Vote NYC arrows are stuck onto the sidewalks surrounding the school, pointing you right to the entrance.
School is open, but there is no mixing of voters and students. A woman sitting at a table right inside the building directs you to the cafeteria, where numerous tables and voting stations are set up.
Get this: You don’t have to go to a specific district table. The poll worker takes your information and then prints out a ballot suitable for your district, all within one minute. Then you walk the ballot to a private voting booth where, as usual, you fill in the circles next to your choices. After that you feed the ballot into the scanner. Finito.
Poll Inspector Grace Meulens says it’s about time New York got into the early voting business.
“It’s better for the people for the simple reason that people can’t come out to vote on Tuesday; they got to go to work,” Meulens told the Brooklyn Eagle. “Now they have Saturday and Sunday. What were they waiting for? Thirty states had it. New York? The biggest and the dumbest.” (New York is not the biggest state; jury’s out on if it’s the dumbest.)
The old registration book was “always incorrect,” Meulens added. “They never had the right addresses in it and we continuously had to make out affidavits. I think [early voting] is better.”
While Meulens is a Democratic inspector, her Republican tablemate, who didn’t want to go on the record, nodded her agreement.
“It’s bipartisan. Everybody is happy about it,” Meulens said.
This election, voters are deciding on five ballot questions that propose changes to the City Charter, and are also electing a candidate for the position of public advocate.
Inspector Jan Combopiano advised that people read their voter guide before coming to fill out their ballot.
“The proposals are in pretty small print, so it’s hard to read. So read about them in the voter guide or online, and that would really help,” she told the Eagle.
“People can always vote on the ballot marking device if they have a hard time reading it,” Combopiano added. “Anyone can use the ballot marking device. It makes the print bigger.”
An election official advises that people read their voter guide before coming to fill out their ballot, especially because the City Charter proposals (on the flip side) are in tiny print and hard to read.
Poll hours
On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday the polling sites are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Tuesday and Friday, they open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. On the weekend it’s 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All the 61 sites across the city have the same hours.
If your site seems like it’s too far to walk, Uber and Lyft are offering rides to early voting poll sites citywide at a 50 percent discount. To receive the discount, request a ride and use the code NYSVOTES2019 for Uber and NYCVOTES for Lyft. The discount is for a single ride (one way) and is good for up to $5 off, while rides are available.
The writer says they voted in a school and did not mix with students while they voted in the cafeteria – what isn’t emphasized is that this is a Law School with adult students! Not a NYC Public School with kids ages 3-10 in Prek-5th grade like my child’s school where early voting is taking over our gym, cafeteria and recess yard. Law students are legal adults and do not require a cafeteria or adults to protect them from strangers in their school.
We believe in early voting, but not in public schools when school children are present. Students have a right to a safe learning environment, without added stress. They have a right to physical education and recess. They have a right to use their cafeteria and have hot lunch.
We must amend the law in 2020 to move early voting out of public schools while in session. It is unfair for our children to have to pay the price for the convenience of voters. There are plenty of other locations suitable for early voting that do not put our school kids at risk.
I am an expatriate Brooklynite living in Oregon where we have vote by mail for all elections and I love it. Ballots go out around three weeks before an election. You fill out the ballot and place it in a secrecy envelope. You place the secrecy envelope in the return envelope and sign the back. Then you simply mail it in. If you wish you can take it to a designated drop off site, In the town where I live they have a drive up box just outside the county courthouse. You can of course take it inside to the clerk’s office. I feel that it allows me to really think about my vote. Particularly on ballot measures.
SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.
ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.
3 Responses
The writer says they voted in a school and did not mix with students while they voted in the cafeteria – what isn’t emphasized is that this is a Law School with adult students! Not a NYC Public School with kids ages 3-10 in Prek-5th grade like my child’s school where early voting is taking over our gym, cafeteria and recess yard. Law students are legal adults and do not require a cafeteria or adults to protect them from strangers in their school.
We believe in early voting, but not in public schools when school children are present. Students have a right to a safe learning environment, without added stress. They have a right to physical education and recess. They have a right to use their cafeteria and have hot lunch.
We must amend the law in 2020 to move early voting out of public schools while in session. It is unfair for our children to have to pay the price for the convenience of voters. There are plenty of other locations suitable for early voting that do not put our school kids at risk.
Students in grades 9-12 are not legal adults and, wait for it, they eat lunch too.
I am an expatriate Brooklynite living in Oregon where we have vote by mail for all elections and I love it. Ballots go out around three weeks before an election. You fill out the ballot and place it in a secrecy envelope. You place the secrecy envelope in the return envelope and sign the back. Then you simply mail it in. If you wish you can take it to a designated drop off site, In the town where I live they have a drive up box just outside the county courthouse. You can of course take it inside to the clerk’s office. I feel that it allows me to really think about my vote. Particularly on ballot measures.