NYC Board of Elections Comes Under Investigation From State Attorney General

Story by: Simone Wilson (Patch Staff)

NEW YORK CITY, NY — New York State Attorney General Eric Scheiderman has officially joined the club of high-ranking government officials sketched out by what went down at polling stations across NYC during Tuesday's presidential primary.

Scheiderman announced Wednesday afternoon on Twitter that his office had "opened an investigation into alleged improprieties in yesterday's voting by the New York City Board of Elections" (BOE).

From sunup to sundown on Election Day, New Yorkers complained of myriad problems at the polls: late opening times, malfunctioning ballot machines, confused poll workers, disappearing voter names and more. (Here, a complete chronicle of the chaos.)

"I am deeply troubled by the volume and consistency of voting irregularities, both in public reports and direct complaints to my office's voter hotline, which received more than one thousand complaints in the course of the day yesterday," Scheiderman wrote Wednesday.

With the support of NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the city's own Comptroller is also planning to audit the BOE.

"The people of New York City have lost confidence that the Board of Elections can effectively administer elections and we intend to find out why the BOE is so consistently disorganized, chaotic and inefficient," City Comptroller Scott Stringer said Wednesday.

In response, the embattled director of the BOE, Michael Ryan, told Patch: "If Stringer believes it is a worthy utilization of city funds... we will fully cooperate with any audit that's conducted."

But in Ryan's opinion, he said, "Democracy not merely survived today in the City of New York — it thrived."

Even if Schneiderman and Stringer's inquiries find thousands more votes hidden somewhere for Democratic underdog Bernie Sanders or GOP runner-ups John Kasich and Ted Cruz, the results of Tuesday's primary vote will likely stay the same: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both New Yorkers, won by respective landslides.

Editor's Note: This post has been updated to include additional details.

Photo by Eric/Flickr (edited)