Bernie Sanders’ campaign on Tuesday called reports of voting irregularities in New York state “a disgrace” as New York City officials contended with the potential for mass confusion in Brooklyn, where the Board of Elections has confirmed that more than 125,000 voters had been stripped from the rolls.
“From long lines and dramatic understaffing to longtime voters being forced to cast affidavit ballots and thousands of registered New Yorkers being dropped from the rolls, what’s happening today is a disgrace,” Sanders spokesman Karthik Ganapathy said in an email to CNN, calling the difficulties a “shameful demonstration.”
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Hillary Clinton supporter, called for major reforms to the Board of Elections as a series of snafus continued to bubble up, including reports of the errant “purge” in Brooklyn.
“It has been reported to us from voters and voting rights monitors that the voting lists in Brooklyn contain numerous errors, including the purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists,” de Blasio said in a statement Tuesday calling on the board to “reverse that purge.”
“The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed,” he said.
The Clinton campaign and Board of Elections had no immediate comment when asked by CNN.
In pledging to audit the board, the office of New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer earlier confirmed in its own statement that “more than 125,000 voters in Brooklyn were removed from voter rolls,” while making reference to “widespread reports of voters having trouble accessing polling sites and other polling irregularities.”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s voter complaint hotline had “received more than 700 complaints from voters across (New York state)” before 4 p.m., Schneiderman spokesman Nick Benson tweeted. The same office, he added, had heard only around 150 on the day of the 2012 general election.
New York’s polls close at 9 p.m.
