And they were worried about the pandemic’s effect on Primary Day . . .
Major Board of Elections snafus shortchanged democracy in New York City on Tuesday when poll workers failed to properly distribute the ballots — preventing some voters from taking part in both the Democratic presidential primary and local races.
The problem so worried the Board of Elections that it tweeted out a warning shortly before noon that said, “In the Democratic primary, voters may have a 2 page ballot!”
“Please check http://nyc.pollsitelocator.com to view your sample ballot,” it added.
In Queens, where Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim is being challenged by NYPD Sgt. Steven Lee, a poll worker at JHS 189 in Flushing told The Post that some voters got only a single ballot.
“There were two ballots. We didn’t know that. Early this morning, we just gave one ballot. So some people didn’t get two,” the worker said.
“We found an hour into it. We didn’t get training because of the virus.”
The worker’s disturbing revelations were cut short by a BOE supervisor, Stella Lu, who insisted everything was fine.
“There was just confusion because we are short people. We have half the staff today,” she said.
Isiah James — who is challenging Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) — lashed out at the Elections Board on Twitter and included a screenshot of a message that said voters were being given “misprinted ballots that do not have the congressional race on them at PS 22 in Brooklyn.”
“@BOENYC y’all need to fix this ASAP! This is not acceptable,” James wrote. “You’ve had months to get this right. Why are voters messaging about this total screw up on your part.”
Kristen Clarke of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said her organization received “reports that voters only received one, not two ballots.” “That seems to be a training issue with polling workers,” she said.
Common Cause New York also said some voters “received incomplete ballots,” with Executive Director Susan Lerner saying it’s among the issues the group would “aggressively” address with election officials.
Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vasquez downplayed the problem. “There were isolated incidents. We sent an email notification to all polling sites about distributing two ballots,” she said.
Vasquez also said a team of roving inspectors was dispatched to polling sites “to make sure two ballots were going out.”
At Junior High School 190 Russell Sage in Forest Hills, Democrat Steven Goffner, 63, showed The Post a photo of a ballot for members of the Serve America Movement party that he was given to use — even though he’s not a member of that minor party — in addition to two Democratic ballots.
Goffner said he actually cast a vote using the Serve America Movement ballot by randomly choosing one of two local candidates for the party committee before realizing the error.
“There’s no oversight. There is no internal control,” he said.
Other problems Tuesday included numerous missing poll workers, with BOE Secretary Fred Umane, Manhattan’s Republican election commissioner, telling The Post the “number of no-shows” was larger than usual.
Many polling places also opened late, including a site in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn that was still locked and had no signs up when voter Angela Alba arrived Tuesday morning.
“I wanted to go as early as possible to have the best chance at social distancing,” Alba told the Gothamist website.
Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks