Election Day turned into a maddening farce for some voters in New York, as city residents faced everything from weirdos in wrestling outfits to election forms that were already filled out to broken voting machines.
At Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School in Midtown, a man wearing a “heavyweight wrestling belt” tried to drop off homemade dummy ballots that listed fake presidential candidates, including a third-party candidate named “My penis is broken.”
The unidentified man was quickly escorted out by cops, poll coordinator Cassie Young said. But he was spotted later masquerading as a reporter after failing to sneak back in.
More seriously, in Queens, a voter said he opened his envelope to discover his ballot had already been filled out, in favor of Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton and other liberal candidates.
“I went to the poll worker and said, ‘This must be a mistake,’ ” said Marcos Pichardo, a police sergeant who cast his vote at PS 306 in Woodside early Tuesday.
The poll worker apologized and “voided” the ballot, Pichardo said.
A campaign poll watcher told GOP congressional candidate Michael Riley’s campaign manager, Maureen Daly, that she witnessed a voter being given a ballot that was also inked in favor of Clinton in the Rockaways.
Complaints also extended to poll sites, volunteers and general incompetence.
“Earlier this morning, we got complaints from several boroughs that people had waited in line, and then weren’t given ballots and were told to return after 2 p.m,” Neal Rosenstein, the government reform coordinator for New York Public Interest Research Group, told The Post.
Frequently coming under fire were the scanning machines themselves, which snarled voter traffic in numerous locations.
“I went to vote in the early afternoon and spent about 90 minutes at PS 52 in Inwood,” griped Jason McDowell, 36. “Out of six voting machines, only one was working.”
While the chief complaint remained long lines, those who opted to cast their ballots later in the day reported fewer issues, and were largely just excited to fulfill their civic duties.
“Finally it’s over, “ exhaled Rick Kahaner, 47, after voting at PS 116 in Murray Hill. “It has been a long journey and I am very happy to see it come to a conclusion.”
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton and Caroll Alvarado