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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Law Student Recounts 'Depressing' Day at Bronx Polling Station

This past election day, Jose Roman, a law student at Ohio State who grew up in Mount Hope, volunteered at a local polling station.

Roman, a former contributor to the Mount Hope Monitor, was stationed at I.S. 117 Joseph H. Wade on Morris Avenue, where he saw illegal electioneering and encountered unhelpful staff. For his election law class, he wrote about his experience, and what he thinks the Board of Elections should do differently to make the process easier for voters, and ultimately more democratic. 

Roman recently posted his essay on Room Eight, a politics blog. You can read it here.

3 comments:

  1. This is a very disturbing account that raises numerous concerns. Among the many questions that come to mind:
    1 - who were the illegal flyers and literature on behalf of?
    2 - who was the candidate the BOE worker was illegally electioneering for?
    3 - who is that BOE worker?
    It's excellent that Mr. Roman has published this report. But if we don't directly deal with the culprits of some of these fundametbnal and egregious violations, then what's the point?
    so ... who? who? who? this is vital information.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi GAX, thanks for the questions.I don't know the BOE worker- at best I can identify her by face. And while the literature that was dropped was from a particular candidate, I am not sure that pointing the finger will solve much. Sure- the staff may be fired( and I would not wish this on no one at this point), and the candidate may be ridiculed.However, if that is done, then in the next election there will be perhaps a different candidate, and a different BOE worker engaging in activities they are not supposed to. I think the issue is much deeper than that. What I do think is the solution is to organize against the BOE and attack how they run their agency.The public do not know much about the agency and the reality is that they are not accountable to the state or City Hall. The agency is run by both parties-dems and republicans, and both parties benefit the way business is being done.

    But,I am sure that if the public brings pressure to the BOE and organize against how the BOE operates, then at minimum the BOE can be held accountable to someone: city taxpayers...

    jroman

    ReplyDelete
  3. where were the police on election day? and i don't mean this only for the polling site documneted here, but reports of similar violations were rampant in the Bronx and throughout the city.

    I recall quite vividly over the years that "electioneering beyond this point" was not ever permitted and there were police at every polling site insuring that this was enforced.

    securing a fair and democratic process in the bronx is no less important than it is in afghanistan and iraq, where the US army protects the rights of voters.

    if we can't secure the fundamental processes of our democracy, what, really do we have?

    ReplyDelete

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