New Yorkers are turning out to vote in droves - Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports
Worries about low voter turnout quickly gave way to worries over how to help get voters cast their ballots in a reasonable amount of time - Ann Marie Kelly is the Democratic Commissioner in Rockland County.
The headlines are plastered on websites of small-town newspapers : "Strong Voter Turnout In Mount Kisco" "Voter Turnout Heavy In Cortlandt" "Strong in Bedford" "Steady in Croton" and so on... The voters are showing up, despite the hardships inflicted byHurricane Sandy... Janai Nelson, an Associate Professor of Law at St.John's University, credits Governor Cuomo's executive order granting those displaced by the storm access to affidavit ballots at unassigned precincts.
A little-noticed New York State law allows counties to seek permission for a second day of voting if they determine that voter turnout was less than 25 percent “as the direct consequence” of a disaster, Nelson says there's an outside chance this law will be invoked. But, in extremely hard-hit storm-weary Suffolk County, spanning the central and eastern portion of Long Island, Board of Elections officials told me they were so busy and turnout so strong, they had no time to comment about it!
In the Capital Region, a SUNY Albany group that registered almost 1,000 students to vote in nine days has been running an unprecedented operation, assisted by the College Democrats, to turn those students out to the polls today. Members of Think Globally – Vote Locally have been stationed outside the Campus Center and around campus to help students find their poll site. Lauren Bailey is involved in the effort - she says there was an incident today involving a poll worker who asked a student to show I.D.
Janai Nelson affirmed that it is illegal to ask a voter who is registred and on the voting rolls to show an I.D.
Lauren Bailey says overall, student-activists are pleased with the turnout at UAlbany - New York City Elections Commissioner J.C. Polanco tells the Associated Press lines have been long even in areas of the city most devastated by the Hurricane.
In New York, polls are open thru 9pm
