Post-Sandy Voting In Coney Island Isn’t Going Too Well [Updated]
- Politicker/ @joshingnyc
As if Brooklynites don’t have enough to worry about already, voting has become a huge ordeal in the parts of the borough hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy, in neighborhoods like Coney Island and the Rockaways in Queens. Damages caused by the storm forced many poll sites to be changed, but Politicker reports that some of those sites are barely functional.
One operative told Policker, “PS 370, which is supposed to be the ‘super’ Coney Island Poll site, there are areas where they don’t have the books to sign in, so people have to vote via affidavit…Every poll site got up late. They don’t even have real police officers here, they have the recruits, police academy. They have no clue what to do, they’ve never done it before. Every site got off late because police academy got off late to open up. One of the new sites…it’s supposed to be a site, but the machines aren’t there.”
Voters are reporting long lines, and apparently a good number of polling sites didn’t even have ballots available when things kicked off this morning, which, you know, not great. We’ll post updates on the situation with voting in Coney Island and the Rockaways as they come.
I’ve been waiting and hr and 18mins to vote so far. I heard almost no one has voted in Coney Island yet.
— MiMi (@StilettoBott) November 6, 2012
Update: In Staten Island, volunteers running polling booths used headlamps in unlit tents this morning. DNAinfo reported that one polling site, P.S. 52 in South Beach, had two heaters set up to warm the voters, but nothing for the volunteers running the show, many of whom are senior citizens.
“They didn’t inform us we’d be in a tent at all..I dressed for being inside, not outside, and we cannot leave.” Diane, 67, informed DNAinfo. She sat in her wheelchair while her husband rubbed her gloveless hands to keep her warm.
