One month after Mayor Bill de Blasio created a new $165,000 position of “chief democracy officer” to boost voter turnout in the city, the mayor’s own son failed to vote, records show.
Dante de Blasio skipped November’s general election, where in addition to statewide races for governor and attorney general, the mayor’s three ballot initiatives meant to increase civic participation were on the ballot, according to Board of Election records.
Only two months earlier, Hizzoner had raised a ruckus after his 21-year-old son ran into problems while voting in the Democratic primary on the Upper East Side.
“I am so sick of people being told they can’t vote when they’ve done everything right to be able to vote,” the mayor said after the September primary.
In early October, de Blasio created a “chief democracy officer,” whose duties include registering 1.5 million new voters in New York City over four years and getting more and more registered voters to the polls.
Lawyer Ayirini Fonseca-Sabune was tapped for the plum post.
As for the mayor’s son, Dante first registered to vote in September 2015, days after he turned 18.
Records show he voted in the 2016 and 2017 Democratic primaries and general elections and the 2018 primary.
Images of the voting log from that district that surfaced during the quarrel between de Blasio and the Board of Elections revealed a bizarre quirk — Dante’s name was the only one listed in the register book for the election district known as “90/76.”
It turns out Gracie Mansion has its own election district, and because the mayor and his wife, Chirlane McCray, still vote in Brooklyn, Dante is the lone registered voter in that Upper East Side District.
Records show the only vote in that district during the primary was on an affidavit ballot for actress Cynthia Nixon — who ran against de Blasio’s political nemesis, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The mayor’s office, Dante de Blasio and the governor’s office declined comment.
Michael Ryan, the BOE’s executive director, said Gracie Mansion having its own district “is unusual — but not unprecedented.” He said a similar-sized district once existed on Liberty Island.
“There used to be the curator of Liberty Island and his wife lived on Liberty Island,” Ryan said. “Since it was its own unique spot, it had its own election district.”