Bronx
Facilitating Democracy … For $200 A Day
Kathleen Caulderwood |
For four years Paul Bales has worked the polls on election day. He says this year is proving especially challenging.
For four years Paul Bales has worked the polls on election day. He says this year is proving especially challenging.
Said one voter: “A lot of people are saying this isn’t normal.”
It’s the first presidential race for New York’s new optical scan voting machines. Do they get a checkmark or an error message from voters?
The third party’s candidates don’t expect to win. But they were happy to “have our voice heard.”
The Bronx went solidly for the Democrat in 2008 and likely will back him by a large margin this year. But according to one Democratic pol, that doesn’t mean people are satisfied with the president, especially when it comes to his “urban agenda.”
This is the first presidential election for the new optical scan voting machines, and they’ll be put to the test in the Bronx, where in 2010 nearly a third of votes were lost because of incorrect marking.
With candidates on the ballot for legislative seats, the Green Party hopes to make a dent in the dominance of two parties with which voters are increasingly disenchanted.
In the most expensive election in U.S. history, with the fate of the presidency possibly hinging on a few counties in Ohio, the Bronx is pretty far from the action. But that won’t stop hundreds of thousands of Bronxites from exercising their franchise.
Dozens of polling sites across the boroughs have been relocated.
Spared the massive destruction seen in outer Queens and the widespread disruption reported in Manhattan, the Bronx still suffered damage from the hurricane, with some neighborhoods experiencing flooding, even fire.