Election Day could be D-Day – for disaster. Worried city election officials are biting their nails after Mayor Bloomberg turned down an emergency request to hire extra workers at polling places on Tuesday, as the possibility of widespread voting delays and confusion loomed amid an expected massive turnout.
Last week, the state Board of Elections asked Bloomberg to allocate emergency funds so the city Board of Elections could hire additional workers for Tuesday.
But mayoral aides called that request an “unsettling surprise” and wondered why the city board “has not raised this issue directly with the city even though city representatives have for almost two months been trying – unsuccessfully – to meet” with board director Marcus Cederqvist to get an update on Election Day planning, according to a letter obtained by The Post.
Mayoral aides indicated the board wouldn’t be getting any additional cash unless officials could make a compelling case, and said the board will have to take the blame for any screw-ups.
Top board official Frederic Umane said yesterday that a whopping 715,000 people have filed voter-registration forms since January and that 34,000 poll workers “are prepared for a large turnout.” He conceded there would be delays and asked the public’s indulgence.
“We just hope that people would be as patient when they try to vote as they would be trying to wait for a hamburger at one of the more fancy hamburger places, which I understand the lines can be up to two or three hours,” he said, quickly adding he doesn’t expect that lengthy a wait at the polls.
But Neal Rosenstein, who has monitored the board for years at the New York Public Interest Research Group, said there are already signs that the voting process this year will be more tortured than in 2004.
“We’re lucky the presidential race is not expected to be close in New York or we’d have election lawyers besieging the polls,” Rosenstein said.
Because of a crush of 204,000 registrants between Oct. 1 and 15, Umane said the board missed the deadline for entering all the names in the poll books that voters have to sign before they can pull the lever.
So a second set of books was produced with 60,000 to 70,000 names – meaning that poll workers will have to examine both when checking in voters.