The Story of the Great Brooklyn Voter Purge Keeps Getting Weirder

[think]

The Story of the Great Brooklyn Voter Purge Keeps Getting Weirder

—By AJ Vicens | Fri Apr. 22, 2016 4:52 PM EDT

Some 120,000 people couldn't vote. What happened?

The first head has rolled after more than 100,000 voters were mistakenly purged from the Brooklyn voter rolls ahead of this week's New York primary, which handed Hillary Clinton a much-needed win over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Diane Haslett-Rudiano, the chief clerk of the New York Board of Elections, was suspended "without pay, effective immediately, pending an internal investigation into the administration of the voter rolls in the Borough of Brooklyn," the agency said in a statement, according to the New York Daily News.

Anonymous city elections officials said Haslett-Rudiano, who was in charge of the city's Republican voter rolls, had been "scapegoated," according to the New York Post. "It sounds like they cut a deal to make the Republican the scapegoat and protect Betty Ann," an anonymous Democratic elected official from Brooklyn told the Post, referring to Betty Ann Canizio, who was in charge of the Democratic voter rolls.

On the day of the primary, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, a Clinton supporter, said he'd heard reports of the "purging of entire buildings and blocks of voters from the voting lists." He said, "The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process."

The voter purge was just one of several problems with the primary throughout the city. Voters also reported long lines, poll locations that didn't open, and, in one case, an elections worker sleeping on the job.

Read more:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/new-york-primary-voter-purge

[hrmjustin]

1. It was done on purpose. People need to go to jail.

And contrary to popular opinion here it was not done to hurt Sanders.

[think]

2. It's a shame we'll never know how it would have effected the out come....

[hrmjustin]

3. We may. The affidavit count is not firm yet in Brooklyn but I hear from county headquarters

that it is big and concentrated in African American neighborhoods.

If they "skipped" steps than those affidavits are legal voyes and should be counted.

[jeff47]

21. You actually have to make a significant fuss to get an affidavit ballot

Poll workers resist giving them out.

And there's lots and lots and lots of ways to declare that affidavit ballot invalid.

There is no way to "undo" this, or minimize the harm. As intended.

[Ferd Berfel]

5. Yea but now that it's too late to do anything about it

it'll get 'fixed' back. So Hillary can take NY in the GE.

This bullshit stinks all the way.

They should call NY (and other states) null and void because of these crimes against democracy and America. And do them over without the criminal activities

Seems odd that the DNC (and Neo-Dem "leadership&quot has never tried to correct the eVoting and election corruption from back in the Bush/Rove days. As Hartmann (and others) have reported, if they talk about it at all they just say they dont' want to talk about it because it might discourage people from bothering to vote. Translation: people might not participate in the farce. This crap benefits the oligarchy (per Jimmy Carter). At that level it doesn't matter which party wins.

[Dem2]

14. Read the post above yours

Why do say things that can't be substantiated to stir up discontent? You seem intent on making up what can only be described as "lies" to further your agenda? Why? Your credibility goes to shit when you do this...

[NWCorona]

4. I'm glad you see this.

Both candidates were affected.

[Andy823]

8. You are right

There is no way anyone could sort out one candidates voters and the purge them from the rolls.

[HooptieWagon]

17. But young voters can be targeted...

And 80% of them would be Sanders voters. Of if someone got ahold of a Sanders donor list, those voters could be targeted.

[Andy823]

7. I agree

I still can't believe how anyone could think that this was a some kind of plot to hurt Bernie. How could anyone know who would be voting for Bernie, and purge them from the voting rolls? All this conspiracy crap happens every time Bernie loses in a state. I agree that this needs to be investigated and if it was done on purpose, someone needs to be prosecuted, whoever that may be.

[eomer]

10. You do know that the campaigns keep lists of voters and who they will vote for, correct?

Have you ever volunteered for a campaign? The systems used for phone banking and canvassing neighborhoods can produce lists of voters and who they plan to vote for, the level of their support, and so on. What would make it impossible to match that list against the registration data?

[beedle]

11. Sure there is.

1 - Purge voters in Brooklyn that was the most progressive county in the 2008 primaries (check)
2 - Purge registered Repbs & Ind who signed switched to Dems just before the Oct deadline, most likely to be Bernie supporters (check)
3 - Purge newly Dems who registered just before March deadline, most likely to be Bernie supporter (check)
4 - Forge registration switch from Dem to Ind for Known Bernie supporters (check) - law suit includes several cases of obvious purposeful fraud in forging voter registration ... one man reported being switched and asking for a copy of the form he supposedly signed ... on it there was indeed his signature ... a 'bit for bit' copy of his signature from his drivers license. (I wonder who really has malicious access to the DNC database during the period when it was 'accidentally' opened, reported, and never closed until one of Bernie's staff looked at the database 'incorrectly'?

And that's just the crap we've discovered so far.

[FlatBaroque]

6. Hillaroids have told me this is nothing but

a bunch of stupid millennials who don't know how to vote.

[artislife]

9. That's what they will be whimpering

in November when the Greens get a lot of the votes they took for granted.

[HooptieWagon]

19. Greens will be getting a lot of votes.

Millenials and liberals are tired of the insults, and very well may give Democratic Party establishment the middle finger. Party will lose an entire generation, and deservedly so.

[dreamnightwind]

12. They must have a list of the disenfranchised

One thing I'd like to see would be a demographic analysis of the purged. Then we could look for patterns to see if the purges looked politically motivated. I'm not certain of the criteria they'd need to look at, but can imagine things like race, age, neighborhood, and how long they had been registered as Democrats could be used to look for candidate correlation.

Also if there was a way the Sanders campaign could compare the purged with its own donor database, and use a similar random group from Brooklyn as a control, they could see if Sanders voters were more likely to have been purged.

I'm sure actual stats people could find the right things to look for. I wonder if anyone is thinking of doing this?

My guess is there would be some correlation, which would be incredible to demonstrate if it's the case. If not, it would be support those who say it was just a purge and not political.

Clinton won Brooklyn, I think? So it seems like there would need to be a bias towards purging Sanders voters rather than a general purge of voters in the area, to show any political motivation.

[Ferd Berfel]

13. The same crap is happening in many states

When the dust settles and there is even more info released/discovered/leaked will the 'victor' be considered LEGITIMATE?
Probably not. If not, what will the following 4 years be like?

Here's what happened in Chicago (just one example of what has happened in other states):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511816613

[seabeyond]

15. First lie, so I stop reading. It did not "hand" Clinton the win and it is irresponsible saying so.

[2pooped2pop]

16. How would people be purged by buildings and blocks?

that is not how the bmv sorts auto licensing, does it? No it must have come through the voter database itself?

[Octafish]

18. ALL people's votes should count. Not just the connected.

Thank you, think! This is why Democracy. It reads strange, seeing the letters. But, to too many people, a concept that hasn't sunk in.

[EndElectoral]

20. Why wasn't Canzio suspended as well pending an investigation?