Ballot Scanner Debacle Should Cost Election Head His Job: Speaker

CHELSEA, NY — City Council Speaker Corey Johnson called for the resignation of the head of the city's Board of Elections amid chaos at polling sites with mass ballot scanner breakdowns and waits of up to two hours to vote.

New Yorkers complained of long lines snaking through polling sites and down streets across the city. Jammed scanning machines caused many fed-up voters to wait on lengthy lines, make multiple trips to their polling sites or walk away without casting their ballots.

The head of city's Board of Elections blamed the mess on high voter turn out and a steady downpour of rain.

“When you have higher turn out and you have more paper passing through the system — you’re going to have some issues," said BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan, speaking to reporters at a poling site.

"What has just been suggested to me here and what seems to make sense is that the weather and people having wet clothing and perhaps ballots getting wet is contributing to that. The dryer, the crisper the ballot is the less issues you’re going to have with the machine."

Johnson slammed Ryan's explanation and demanded his resignation on Twitter.

"Every election is like Groundhog Day: long lines, polling site issues, huge problems. Now we’re blaming the weather?" said Johnson in a tweet.

"It’s unacceptable & unfair to voters. Michael Ryan should resign & we should begin a top to bottom review of how this happened. It’s time for new leadership at BOE."

At The Lesbian, Gay Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, Johnson's polling site, machines jammed on wet ballots and at least one woman had to redo her ballot after the machine would not accept the sheet, which was wet and the ink had smudged on her selection.

"Voting should not be this difficult. [The BOE] has had all year to prepare for this day. Bad weather and high turnout are no excuse when we have forecasts for both," Johnson said in another tweet.

"Michael Ryan needs to resign and we need a full top to bottom review of what went wrong today."

The BOE did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Patch.

Photo courtesy of NYC City Council