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Board of Rejections

Dear Editor,
Regarding your July 8th opinion piece, “The embarrassing Board of Elections,”
the vote-counting error shows why it should be called the Board of Rejections.
I fought a seven-year battle with the BOE to reopen the P.S. 164 polling site in Kew Gardens Hills for the 2019 Queens D.A. primary election. It has become even more dysfunctional since then.
Under state law, the BOE’s full-time staffers are chosen by Republican and Democrat party leaders in each of state’s 62 counties. That makes it a patronage pit for
political hacks instead of a professional outfit.
Assemblywoman Nily Rozic of Queens and State Senator Liz Krueger of Manhattan proposed bills to reform the BOE and rid it of all political influence. That may require amending the state constitution and will likely face fierce resistance from bosses of both parties.
All legislators in Albany must back the reform measures. Those who refuse do not
deserve our votes when they face re-election in 2022.
Sincerely,
Richard Reif
Kew Gardens Hills

Voters desrve a quick count

While there have been a few test runs of the city’s new ranked-choice voting system in special elections earlier this year, for the first time on a large scale voters will get to rank their top five candidates.
And to stave off the critics before the polls close on June 22 in the primary, the Board of Elections (BOE) is admitting that it will likely be a few weeks before we know who won in citywide races for posts like mayor and comptroller.
BOE needs to do better.
The state legislature could help by passing a bill that would allow BOE to release all the records once the election is certified, which they can’t legally do currently.
That State Senate and Assembly should get to work on legislation immediately so that voters – and the candidates – aren’t waiting weeks for the results.

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