I voted yesterday. It took about a minute because I was simply dropping off my absentee ballot at the Kings County Board of Elections.
I had to make it through a gauntlet of voters to get to the counter. I was pleasantly surprised the line was out the door given New York is not an early voting state.
And unlike, say, Virginia and Colorado, where a single vote could make a difference, the Empire State is not in play. One study found that “voters in states such as New York, California, and Texas where the probability of a decisive vote is closer to 1 in a billion, any reasons for voting must go beyond the any instrumental rationality.”
The rationale for the long line is all too familiar: lack of confidence in election officials. Several voters told me they were requesting an absentee ballot in person because they didn’t trust the political hacks who run the city's elections would process their application in time.
Indeed, that was also my rationale for hand-delivering my application earlier this month.
The voters echoed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s assessment that the Board of Elections is a “joke”:
If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. So, don’t let the joke be on you.
Get ready this weekend. Buy some bottled water and snacks to bring to the polls, along with patience and determination on Election Day.
