I Voted In New York’s Primary...After 5 Hours And A Court Order

By Nathan Wellman

In a perfect example of how disastrously run the New York primaries have been, one voter is reporting that his name was deleted from the list of eligible voters despite his registration six months ago. Why? Because his name shares a few of the same letters as another man who lives in a completely different borough.

Ben Gershman, a young voter from Chicago, registered at the New York Department of Motor Vehicles after moving to Ridgewood in Queens six months ago. But when he checked his voter status shortly before today’s election, he found that his name had been taken off the voter list.

“They told me I shared the same initials as a voter in the Bronx, it confused both registrations and I had become de-registered,” Gershman told DNAinfo New York.

Rather than helping Gershman fix this inexplicably frustrating problem at the polls, he was forced to spend hours at the New York City Board of Elections office on Queens Boulevard. Gershman said that by the time he jumped through all the bureaucratic hoops and returned to his poll site in Ridgewood, it took him a total of five and a half hours to cast his ballot.

“It’s insane what I have to do, and I am registered,” he said. “There’s no accountability in the election process.”

In addition to Gershwin’s ordeal, at least 126,000 registered New Yorkers were quietly purged from the voter list, and Comptroller Scott Stringer has vowed to audit the Board of Elections, saying the entire day had been “riddled with chaos and confusion.” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio echoed these sentiments, calling for “major reforms” within the Board of Elections.

In a Facebook post, Gershwin urged other voters not to let the system defeat them: “NYC Voters- DON’T settle for an Affidavit Ballot if you’ve been deregistered! I went to the Queens County BOE and stood in front of a judge who gave me a court order. It is your LEGAL RIGHT to vote on a standard ballot. There’s already 126,000 voters confirmed to have been deregistered– corrupt system, corrupt party, corrupt country!”