By Solange Reyner(NEWSMAX)
Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are calling on the New York City elections board to make adjustments following a weekend of long lines and record voter turnout.
Voters waited hours to cast ballots on Saturday, the first time early voting has been allowed in New York in a presidential election. Nearly 200,000 people cast their ballots over the first two days.
“Right now we’ve got a problem. The Board of Elections was clearly not prepared for this kind of turnout, and needs to make adjustments immediately,” de Blasio said Monday at a press briefing. “Long lines tell people to go home. That’s just the reality.”
AOC on Saturday slammed the process as an “injustice.”
“There is no place in the United States of America where two-, three-, four-hour waits to vote is acceptable,’’ she said outside a Parkchester site.
“And just because it is happening in a blue state doesn’t mean it isn’t voter suppression. There is very clearly a problem. There is a lot of work to be done.”
De Blasio said the city was willing to foot the bill if money was an issue.
“If the Board of Elections says they don’t have the money, let me say right now, the city of New York will provide the resources,” he told reporters. “They cannot claim they will not have the resources. This is about doing the right thing and making voting earlier for all New Yorkers.”
