NYC poll worker says they were instructed to tell voters their ballot was incorrect if they didn't vote a straight party line

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"IN BROOKLYN they instructed ignorant poll workers to LOOK AT every ballot - ILLEGAL!!! To instruct anyone who didn't vote down ONE party line that their ballots were incorrect - ALSO ILLEGAL."

11/19/12, "New York City Board of Elections: Unlucky or Incompetent?" CityandStateNY.com, Nick Powell

"In the aftermath of another Election Day riddled with problems, yet again a chorus of catcalls deriding the New York City Board of Elections is ringing through the five boroughs....

What ended up ensuing on Election Day verged on chaos....Reports circulated throughout the day of polling sites with broken voting scanners or no scanners at all, and instances of poorly trained election workers rejecting valid affidavit ballots from voters. Other poll workers were visibly overtaxed, with many running around trying to organize lines at polling stations, or soliciting information from voters before they entered the voting room in an attempt to speed the process....

Some even held Gov. Cuomo accountable for waiting until the eve of the election before signing an executive order allowing displaced New Yorkers to cast affidavit ballots at any polling location in the city, a decision that swelled polling sites with voters and was likely a factor in the ensuing confusion.

But even election districts that were not affected by Sandy had similar issues...

“The Board of Elections worked really hard to do what they could,” City Councilwoman Gale Brewer said. “But in my district we had the same issues and not one iota of a hurricane problem, so [the difficulties] are systemic.”"... 

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Among comments to 2012 NYC voting:

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CM Colon •

"INCOMPETENT. I can at least attest to the Brooklyn offices on Adams Street. I was a poll worker for three years and from day one it was a sham. You had to "know people" who knew people to get the district leaders (unpaid and all about fulfilling favors) to put you on the list of people they knew would be in favor of their agendas. THEN you went down for training where answers are yelled out, put on pieces of paper and thrown around as if we were in some detention room after school. The day of it was the sheep leading the sheep as the poll coordinators are so ENTRENCHED they wouldn't understand what propositions were.

IN BROOKLYN they instructed ignorant poll workers to LOOK AT every ballot - ILLEGAL!!!  

To instruct anyone who didn't vote down ONE party line that their ballots were incorrect - ALSO ILLEGAL.

Complaints were made but feedback and call backs were not given. Disgusting. Travesty. Whole system needs an overhaul but more than that, the office needs to get rid of EVERY ONE and people with real skills need to be hired."

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rothsteg 

"Why is this even a question? The Board of Elections has proven its incompetence over decades. This year's election was made worse by Sandy and, by the fact that this was the first Presidential election with the new machines which the workers clearly were not prepared to handle with a full allotment of voters present. The former was out of the Board's control; the latter was totally within its control."

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