Photo of (left to right) State Sen. Brad Hoylman, U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, State Rep. Linda Rosenthal, and unidentified baby in front of the 72nd Street and Broadway subway station by Michael McDowell.
Upper West Siders tend to vote in large numbers, and local politicians were giving people one last reminder on Tuesday morning. For those not so enthused by their choices, know this: areas with high voter turnout tend to get more federal funding. As in: it’s always good to remind the politicians who they work for.
We’ve already been hearing about some voting issues — long lines, broken scanners. Let us know if you have any issues, like Kate and Rob did below. You can email westsiderag at gmail, comment below, write to us on Twitter @westsiderag or tag us on Instagram @westsiderag. And send photos if they help explain what’s going on.
Voting on the upper west side is like the freaking hunger games right now @westsiderag 10 scanners and line wrapped three times around the school gym
— Kate Pena (@KPena8) November 6, 2018
— Kate Pena (@KPena8) November 6, 2018
(Kate was at the Joan of Arc school complex at 154 West 93rd Street.)
@westsiderag took 30 minutes to vote on 93rd St 2 scanners were down bring a pen and vote in line to save time!
— rkudyba (@rkudyba) November 6, 2018
Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about voting.
Come on, even this pumpkin on 108th Street is into it.
Photo by Anya.
The “unidentified baby” is Congressman Nadler’s granddaughter!!
Linda Rosenthal
Long lines and a bit of chaos but the poll workers at my location were doing the best they could and trying to maintain good spirits. Everyone seemed to be enthused to be participating and willing to wait their turn except a few smug, entitled people who seemed horrified that they had to wait in line with the common folk. And heaven forbid a young child got in their way while patiently waiting in line with a parent!
One of our two scanners was down on West 72nd.
ha, it was “Hunger Games” on 109th street too, but we stuck with it cast our ballots. Let’s get it done, NY!
At PS 165 on the Upper West Side, only 3 scanners are working. Ballots are being collected in bins. People are in good humor despite long lines, and uncertainty about how the votes will be counted.
I just returned from voting at P.S. 87 where there was a full house and just as many people waiting on line when I left. I was impressed with the size of the crowd, (1000) with those in and waiting. I’ve been voting since 1960, that’s 58 elections and my feeling was that tody’s was an example of DEMOCRACY as it should be. Hopfully it will be like this from now on!
I just got back from PS87 with bad news and good news. The bad news: a long line–it took me almost an hour before I could scan my ballot–because only two of the five scanners are working. The good news: the three scanners that are out of service are because they are so full of ballots that the machines stop accepting more ballots. The election officials can’t open the machines to reset them and until the police are present. It seems that turnout is very very strong at least in the UWS.
I don’t want to be a buzzkill but us New Yorkers knew better before the 2016 election. It’s the rest of the country that needs to get with the program.
Now about those voting scanners, at one of the Lincoln Towers buildings one of the two was down as well. Call me stupid, but doesn’t the city have almost a full year to make sure these things are working before they go out to the polls? This is not the first time this has happened and from other posts, it seems not to be an isolated case.
Proud of my Westsiders for coming out, even if it is a long wait.
What’s that saying, Good things come to those who wait.
We had an issue with the scanners a few years back… fortunately, the poll workers had enough brains to collect all the ballots to be processed through the scanners when they came back to functioning, so we didn’t have to be in there for hours on end. THAT is the beauty of the system we now use, paper ballots, then scanned with the paper saved for any validation needed.
Zero problems, lines, chaos, or drama at the Marseilles Hotel polling place on W. 103rd at 6 p.m. Scanners worked fine. I always go after work and never had had a problem. At first could not find the 3 proposals on the two-page ballot, but figured it out.
Voting was a disaster machine scanners were breaking down left and right thank god For patient New Yorkers I certainly didn’t have any as my disability was making me sick just being at the polls.
I don’t understand why voting by mail isn’t allowed in New York State. Why wait in line for hours—especially since there’s a good chance that the ballot box will be broken???