City Council Survey Reveals Depth Of Election Day Issues

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A New York City Council survey showed that about one in three voters encountered problems in the general election.

While not the "royal screw-up" described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the primary elections, the survey revealed issues with ballot design, the type size and a lack of privacy at polling places, 1010 WINS' Senior Correspondent Stan Brooks reported.

1010 WINS Reporter Stan Brooks with the details

Council Speaker Christine Quinn chided the Board of Elections for not evaluating its own performance during and after the elections and demanded action.

"This is something the board should already be doing and should be providing to the City Council -- not the other way around," Quinn said.

"It's extraordinary that the legislative body got good government groups and we went out and got this data versus the entity that is charged with running elections getting this data."

In a release on its website, the City Council published a number of feedback comments from voters participating in the survey.

"Between the low light and tiny print, the ballot was almost unreadable. I didn't have my reading glasses with me, so I hope I marked it correctly," one voter from Washington Heights said.

"The print is too small. I felt like I was taking an Eye Exam," another from Sheepshead Bay quipped.

"We can have the fanciest and the best voting system in the country, but if voters can't read the ballot, we have an enormous problem," Quinn said.

Voters also commented that so called "privacy booths" were too close together and that many voters needed assistance with their ballots, which in many cases required individuals to expose their preferences to poll workers.