By Gus Saltonstall
The American Museum of Natural History might be known for its dinosaur fossils and planetarium, but soon you might also be able to cast a vote for your favored politicians within its famed halls.
A trio of Upper West Side elected officials, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, and City Councilmember Gale Brewer, joined together this month to ask the museum to serve as a neighborhood early voting site, rather than a local public school complex that says the stretch of voting days brings an assortment of challenges to their community.
Since 2022, the William O’Shea Complex at 100 West 77th Street, which includes 1,500 students at the Dual Language Middle School, The Computer School, and The Anderson School, has served as an early voting location for primary and general elections.
Numerous parents and faculty members from the school communities have reached out to Hoylman-Sigal’s office to say that the nine days of early voting at the school “restrict nutritional options for students, and compromise student safety.”
“Parents are especially concerned about the safety risks posed by early voting,” a letter from the three elected officials to the American Museum of Natural History reads. “While voters are technically confined to certain areas of the Complex, teachers and students regularly encounter adults wandering the building and using the bathrooms.”
Since voting is held in the cafeteria of the school, students are unable to eat hot food during that week.
With the situation laid out, the three elected officials made the two following requests of the American Museum of Natural History:
- “Grant the BOE access to inspect the location and evaluate its suitability as an Early Voting location; and
- Serve as an Early Voting location for the primary and general elections, should the BOE approve the site.”
“Your decision to serve as an early voting location would continue AMNH’s long-standing and deserved reputation as a hospitable neighbor for West Siders, and improve our constituents’ access to the ballot box,” the letter continues.
The American Museum of Natural History responded in the affirmative.
This month, the Upper West Side museum reached out to the New York City Board of Elections and a subsequent site visit was organized to survey the space, according to Hoylman-Sigal’s office. The BOE is now working with the museum to determine if voting would be possible within one of its buildings.
The Rag will update this story with the outcome.
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We have voted at the school on 76th Street for decades. Why not move on to the museum?
I am totally in favor of this change–terrible to occupy the schools like this for days on end, or even one day.
Agreed. This is a great idea. Kudos to these politicians for finding a good solution. They are not my favorites but I will give credit where credit is due. Thank you.
I think it is great that we finally have early voting so more people can easily vote and to cut down on lines on election day. But the disruption to the school is really bad. One day for election day is fine. A week is not OK.
I am curious how many people actually vote early. Not questioning it – I would keep it even if the numbers are tiny. Just curious.
ITA. When voting was done only on Election Day and may one earlier day for primaries it was workable. Now the schools have to deal with weeks of early voting. It’s too big of an impact on the students.
I don’t think the kids should be disturbed or distracted nor should the museum should be distracted from its daily routines especially when the schools visiting the museum. If people who want to vote early then early voting should be done online…!!!
I agree early voting should be done online.
I noticed just this Sunday that the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts early voting at an entrance near their parking garage at 80th St and Fifth Avenue. This would be a nice bookend for a West Side museum to do the same.
What a great idea! And as we vote, we can remember to visit the museum as well, that day or in the near future.
I can’t think of a better place to vote for either Biden or Trump and then see the other fossils in the museum.
Looks like a great idea to use one of the side entries/halls of the museum. It is part of the neighborhood. I am sure it receives public funds/tax-relief/whatever. There will be a lot LESS disruption to the children’s education, and the museum is well equipped to close off only the part they want voters to be in.
Passing the Metropolitan Museum this morning, I noticed signs that is is a voting place for the current election. Why not the AMNH? Why deprive the students of their cafeteria for the extended weeks of early voting? (If the change is made, I do admit I will miss the bake sales the kids have held in the corridors outside the voting area — good brownies!)
Early voting in schools is ridiculous. Election Day is one thing. On Election Day, there is no school for students. It used to be a day off for teachers also, so that teachers could work the polls, but it is now a day full of meetings. But at least it is only adults in the building during Election Day.
With early voting, which I do see as a good thing, at least for the general election, it is a major issue. In my school, the voting is in the gym, students do not have access to the gym for gym class. This is fine if the weather is ok, but if it is raining, the students spend gym class sitting in the auditorium doing nothing. Schools should not be early voting sites.
Vote early…..and often.
I wish they could have figured this out before primary early voting but I hope it goes through for general election early voting. It’s so hard for the kids to eat in their classrooms and sit in classrooms during recess for weeks just so early voting can happen in a school. There needs to be better options.
Voting should not be in schools. It is disruptive and dangerous.
Please don’t make me pass Shake Shack to vote!
I used to vote in the Rutgers Church, why is this no longer an option
This also affects the Grand Bazaar which operates in the cafeteria on Sundays, which is then closed. This takes away funding from the school everytime they are bumped out.