New York, NY – Outgoing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly criticized the city’s new voting process, saying “the days of the secret ballot are over.”
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Bloomberg fumed that the city’s new $95 million voting system allows poll workers to sneak a peek at a voter’s ballot. He said a Board of Elections worker glanced at his sheet when he placed it in the optical-scan machine at a Manhattan polling site Nov. 5.
“It is a disgrace,” Bloomberg said at an unrelated press conference on Tuesday. “Everybody should understand when they vote, everybody’s gonna know who they voted for because there’s somebody watching you. And why we tolerate that I have no idea.”
Board of Elections President Michael Ryan said he was “concerned by an issue raised by any voter.”
“It’s something that we will take seriously,” Ryan told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “We will look into it going forward.”
The new voting process requires a voter to fill out a paper ballot at a standup desk and then take it over to a machine, where it is inserted face-up to be scanned.
“You then go and stick it into the scanner, where in my case there was someone watching to see who I voted for and everybody I know says exactly the same thing,” Bloomberg said.
The standup desks have partitions to create some privacy and poll workers are supposed to give voters folders to hide their ballots when they walk to the scanners.
Ryan suggested that voters should slide the ballot from the folder directly into the scanner, which he believes would prevent anyone from seeing it. He also recommended that any voter with a concern register a complaint with one of the board’s call centers.
The optical scanner machines were introduced in 2010 but experienced frequent breakdowns and long delays two years later. The old lever machines were trotted out of retirement for primary day this year but the optic scanners were brought back for the general election.
Bloomberg, a frequent critic of the Board of Elections, would not reveal if he voted for Bill de Blasio or Joe Lhota on Election Day. De Blasio won in a historic landslide and will succeed Bloomberg at City Hall on Jan. 1.
Bloomberg is an independent; De Blasio is a Democrat, and Lhota is a Republican.
Also, after the paper is scanned, where does it go? If its not instantly shredded then the polling staff can match the paper to the numbers they assigned it when voters get the form from the poll workers.
Bottom line is, it is possible to easily figure out who voted how.
Well, well, well… look who’s suddenly concerned about liberty!
Bloomberg is right. If I remember correctly, I voted 3 times with the new scan machines. Every time, I felt uncomfortable with privacy unlike the old machines with full curtains closing. They give you these folders to put your ballot in, but the folders are short and the ballot sticks out with filled in bubbles peering out the edges. And I remember well when the poll person next to the scan had his eyes locked on the ballot. Not that I was afraid of my candidates but the whole “secret ballot” thing is a joke.
For once, I totally agree with Bloomberg and i’m glad that someone is saying loud what has to be said.
While it is true that there are SEVERAL opportunities for workers and other voters to see how you voted, Herr Bloomberg is guilty of the same thing. For his very questionable third term campaign he had people going door to door with clipboards asking people directly WHO they were voting for! If this was not intimidation, I don’t know what is!
these machines were introduced in 2010, how come he did not complain then? how come he di not make sure things changed to protect our privacy? suddenly he noticed??
Another ineffective government agency (check out the TSA article in VIN). In the age of technology is this the best system the Board of Elections can come up with?
make no mistake the machines were done on purpose so they can see whom your are and whom you vote. so if you vote for the wrong party perhaps they will send the irs after you..bloomberg no doubt voted for lohota if he voted for deblasio he wouldnt care.
The sheets slide into a locked box where they can’t be accessed until the boxes are collected and stored away in one of the warehouses, and they can only be opened by the Election Board or by Judges order. The process requires you, the voter, to vote in secret not that the voting should be done in secret. You have to protect your choices and if you watch some of the voters, especially those who bring little Yossi or Shira to the polls, they aren’t protecting their ballots. You must never give your ballot to the poll worker, the poll worker may assist you if you request it, to demonstrate the process, not do it for you. Voting isn’t a passive act.
The circles & font were so small – I wonder who “I” voter for!