This is an extended and different story to the one which appears in our latest print edition.

 

As the NYC Board of Elections (BOE) continues to tally the final numbers following the Aug. 23 primaries, we take a look at the known voter breakdown to date, and share some of the feedback and insights gathered from voters on Election Day.

 

As reported, the BOE released the initial, unofficial primary election results on Election Night, based on the majority of voting returned machines which took into account both early votes and Election Day votes. Absentee and military ballots still need to be counted.

 

According to NYC BOE’s website, the latest total voter enrollment number in The Bronx as of Feb. 21, 2021 was 872,925. Of this number, 772,279 voters were designated active and 100,646 inactive. The total number of 872,925 is broken down as follows:

• 56,455 for Council District 8 which comprises A.D. 77, A.D. 84, and A.D. 85,
• 102,617 for Council District 11 which comprises A.D. 78, A.D. 80, A.D. 81 A.D. 83,
• 112,477 for Council District 12 which comprises A.D. 80, A.D. 81, A.D. 82 and A.D. 83,
• 100,602 for Council District 13 which comprises A.D. 80, A.D. 82, A.D. 83 and A.D. 87,
• 94,515 for Council District 14 which comprises A.D. 77, A.D. 78, A.D. 81 and A.D. 86,
• 93,211 for Council District 15 which comprises A.D. 77, A.D. 78, A.D. 79, A.D. 80, A.D. 86 and A.D. 87,
• 100,060 for Council District 16 which comprises A.D. 77, A.D. 79, A.D. 84 and A.D. 86,
• 102,440 for Council District 17 which comprises A.D. 77, A.D. 79, A.D. 84, A.D. 85, A.D. 86 and A.D. 87,
• 110,532 for Council District 18 which comprises A.D. 82, A.D. 85 and A.D. 87 and
• 16 for Council District 22 which comprises A.D. 85.

 

Last year, we reported on an analysis by the NAACP of voter registration and voter engagement, generally, in various Bronx districts.

On the second Primary Election Day of 2022, Aug. 23, the BOE announced that as of 6 p.m. the voter check-ins at the various borough polls comprised of 102,493 for Manhattan, 18,125 for The Bronx, 79,304 for Brooklyn, 17,996 for Queens and 19,970 for Staten Island. The total for the City was 237,888. These figures comprised Election Day check-ins and early voting check-ins. Norwood News asked the BOE for the figures as of close of polls on Election Day. We did not receive an immediate response.

 

In contrast, in the June 2022 primaries, which included some statewide races such as governor, 60,927 people voted in Bronx County (57,103 in the Democratic primary for governor, and 3,824 in the Republican primary for governor.)

 

Sheila Sanchez, president of local political organization, the Northwest Bronx Democrats, was working as a poll coordinator at M.S.105, located at 725 Brady Avenue in Pelham Parkway on Election Day. Regarding voter turn-out, Sanchez had a different perception of the situation, saying, “This has been a very good election so far,” she said. “We got everything we need, and all the help we needed has been here since very early in the morning.”

 

Sanchez said she believed one of the reasons why there were not as many people voting on Election Day morning as there had been on previous Election Days was because more people were aware of the option of early voting. “That has been very helpful,” she said, adding, “People have been getting used to those early elections [early voting]. I was watching with a poll watcher, the numbers, and the numbers are actually very good.”

 

Sanchez added, “Thanks to the early elections [early voting], a lot more people [have] been voting than years before, and that is pretty good.” She said redistricting had caused a little bit of confusion, in her opinion, adding that people knew they had to vote for a representative of a new Senate District, but didn’t understand very well why the district changes were required. She said she supposed it had more to do with what she said was “a lack of information” on the subject from city officials than anything else.

 

We also spoke to Barry Saltz at M.S. 105. He had volunteered for State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) who ran for reelection in redrawn Senate District 33, as reported. “I’m a former tenant organizer,” Saltz told Norwood News. “I’ve been a strong supporter of Gustavo for years. He stood up against the IDC [Independent Democratic Conference, a now defunct group of Democrats in Albany who had traditionally voted with Republicans over many years, blocking progressive legislation from passing], one of the few Bronx electeds that did.

 

Salts continued, “He’s a strong guy. He’s very strong on tenant rights, and also as the chair of the health committee. He supports single payer health care in New York, and that’s several of the reasons why I strongly support Gustavo.” The senator has since declared victory in the race, as reported, over lawyer and former Board of Elections commissioner, Miguelina Sanchez.

 

Meanwhile, at the Glad Tidings Assembly of God voting site, located at 2 Van Cortlandt Avenue East in Jerome Park, Elisa Bresba, 41, who has lived on the Grand Concourse in Bedford Park for around 20 years, said the voting process had been “easy and smooth” and like every other time she voted.

 

She has voted at the same site for five or six years and said was not affected by any poll site changes. Asked how long she knew who it was she was going to vote for in the primaries, Bresba said, “I had an inkling, but I actually got to meet some of the candidates, and in talking to them, when I had a discussion, that’s kind of when I changed my mind. So, within the last week is when I got to meet with them. One of the times they were by the subway station or I got to ask a question or two, and that definitely affected my choice.”

 

Obdulio Herrera, 66, spoke to us in Spanish also at Glad Tidings Assembly of God poll site, and said he showed up there because that was where he had always voted. Asked what happened, he said, “Well it was a bad experience because no one notified me that it wasn’t here. I’m 66 years old, with the hot temperature outside. I’ve walked a half hour to exercise my right to vote, like a good citizen, and what a surprise! I find that now, I have to walk another half hour so I can cast my vote. This is called ‘dislocamiento,’ to make a person crazy. In other words, if a person isn’t very aware about voting, they won’t vote.”

 

Herrera added, “That’s why here in New York City, there’s such a low turnout of voters. They mess around with the voters’ time, because I should have received some type of notification that this was not my polling station, but [it is] at another address. Asked to confirm that he did not receive any notice about the change in voting site, even in the mail, Herrero said, “No, I did not receive any. No no, and if I did, I didn’t notice it but if I did, I would’ve gone to the other address, and not come here after all this hassle.”

 

Asked if the situation had discouraged him from voting, Herrera said it had. “The candidates should provide a means of transportation at every site so that when something like this happens, they can give the voter a ride there, because every vote counts. Every vote counts.” Asked if he still planned to vote at the other site, Herrera said, “No, I’m too discouraged. I’m heading home because the heat is too much, and I’m 66 years old and I have back pain. I guess I’ll vote in the general election.”

 

Norwood News spoke with one poll worker at Kings College poll site at 3530 Kings College Place in Norwood on June 28, Primary Election Day, and he said that the BOE had issued notices to voters, advising them of their change of poll site in advance of the primary. Indeed, Norwood News had previously reported on concerns raised by some Tracey Towers voters regarding announced changes to their usual poll site, onsite at Tracey Towers, an 871-unit, Mitchel Lama housing complex located in Jerome Park, ahead of the June primaries. The residents said they had received such notices from the BOE of the announced poll site changes.

 

When questioned a number of times about the reason for the change of poll site at Tracey Towers, the BOE initially said the change was due to redistricting. However, when advised that Tracey Towers was not affected by redistricting, since it was and remains in the same redrawn district, BOE officials finally said the announced change of poll site was down to a clerical error, and reversed the decision.

 

Meanwhile, asked if he had decided in advance which candidate he was going to vote for, Herrera said, “I had already decided on [Rep.] Adriano Espaillat. So, hey Adriano, now you know! If you lost by one vote, it was because of mine!” As reported, Espaillat has since declared victory in his Democratic congressional primary in New York’s 13th congressional district. Herrera chuckled, “So, for the next one [election], provide transportation!”

We also spoke to voter, “Vamir,” at the same Glad Tidings Assembly of God poll site. Asked how the voting process had been, he said, “Easy! Excellent! Great [inaudible]. It’s always great coming here!” Asked when he had made up his mind who he was going to vote for, Vamir said, “It was probably a couple of weeks ago, but I still did a few things just to really watch and listen, but my mind did not change.”

 

Asked if he was referring to the debates, he said, “Watch debates, and just doing my own research, which I think is important as a citizen.  And there are things that come in the mail, but I still like to go online, and watch, and do my research. So even though I had made my decision prior, you know, things shift. You never know what’s new, and then you look at what endorsements….from the people, from teachers, or certain things like that.”

 

Asked what top two issues he really cared about, Vamir asked if we were referring to the primary or the general election. When we said the primary, he replied, “I would say transportation, and mainly just about access to voting and education.” He continued, “Education is one of the biggest ones,” and added that he felt the person he voted for also had those two issues as their priorities.

 

We also spoke to some voters at the P.S. 8 Isaac Varian poll site, located at 3010 Briggs Avenue in Bedford Park, and once again, at the P.S. 94 Kings College poll site in Norwood. As reported, a 22-year-old man had been shot in the vicinity of P.S. 8 on June 8.

 

Frank Aguayo said he also voted for Rivera and added that he believed officials were making it hard for people to vote in the primaries. “I’m usually going on this side, now it’s on this [other] side,” he said. He added that the Board of Elections should just have had one local center for the people living locally and not changed it. “They keep changing the venue. They mix me up. I had to go all the way down to the post on Webster. I could have gone there before, and then they change it to over here, and they sent me no letter,” he said.

 

Asked if there was any issue with the voting machine, he said no. Asked what was most important to him in terms of voting, he said to vote for Democrats.

 

José Ballet shared that he also voted for Rivera in redrawn Senate District 33. Asked what persuaded him to vote for the senator, he said, “I think Rivera has more experience. He comes from education. He has an education background. He’s an educator like me, so that counts for a lot.” Asked what other issues were important to him, Ballet said, “Crime, the environment, especially crime. I’ve been seeing a big big difference. I’ve been living in New York for 30 years. I live in this neighborhood for 28 years; things are getting worse,” he said.

 

Asked how he felt about the primaries being split up across June and August this year, Ballet said, “That doesn’t have sense to me. I think that [made] it maybe more difficult, and that will reduce the number of votes, because not everybody will stay vote. I was talking with a friend…he was able to vote back in June, but then he had to go to Puerto Rico. Now, he cannot vote today but it could have happened vice versa.”

 

Asked if he felt he had sufficient information about each of the candidates ahead of the elections, Ballet said, “Yes.” We asked how important voting was to him. Ballet said he would encourage everyone to vote and added, “I think it’s one of the few tools we have available to make change but it’s important for people to be knowledgeable.”

 

Ballet added that he usually votes in every primary and every general election. We asked him if he had encountered any voting machine issues at his poll site. Referring to a poll site worker, he said, “I think the employee was not knowledgeable about what she was doing. She had difficulty with her tablet.” He added it was the first time he had seen that and suggested maybe she was new in the role.

 

Norwood News asked how redistricting had impacted Ballet’s voting experience. He said, “I noticed…I was a little bit confused. There was no primary for the Congress, here.” Indeed, both the Republican and Democratic primaries on Aug. 23 for redrawn Congressional District 15 were canceled. “Maybe he’s [Rep. Ritchie Torres, the NY-15 incumbent] running by himself?” Ballet added. “But I don’t think that it affected me. I think I’m still in the same district.”

 

Norwood News later spoke with Rachel Rymer and asked her if there were any issues with the voting machines at her center, and she said there were not. Rymer also voted for Rivera in redrawn Senate District 33. Asked what was the top issue she wanted to see candidates address, and what persuaded her to vote for Rivera, she paused, and then said, “Experience, integrity, and I guess, anticipating responsibility in our democracy, protecting our democracy.”

 

Asked if there were any particular policy issues which she was most concerned about, she said healthcare, housing and education. We asked how she found the whole redistricting experience and if it had impacted upon her voting experience. She said, “I mean, I think we had really good candidates in District 33, and I wish I could have voted for both of them, and maybe if they hadn’t had that redistricting, maybe each of them could have been in a different….in their own district.”

 

She added, “I think Rivera was our senator before, so it’s kind of not too different for us. I guess the geography of the district changed.” Asked how she felt about the split primaries, she said, “Tough…..I think it’s probably going to result in lower voter turnout. This is like the week…..everybody knows, like, those last two weeks of August, New York is a ghost town so, I don’t know why they would schedule a primary especially, you know, if they’re trying to encourage voter participation. It’s a really bad timing.”

 

Asked about her views on the importance of voting in general, she said, “I think that voting is hugely important for our future, for anyone who cares about our government, the way laws are created, and the way this is done for the people, so I think voting is important for that reason.”

 

We also spoke with poll site worker, “Tania.” She said she felt that voting would probably pick up around noon. “That’s when some of the nursing home staff may come by, and if they are still here…to vote, and not in a different location,” she said, adding that after work also, voting usually picks up a little bit. She said voting had been sluggish however, adding that she had seen close to 100 people in the early morning but afterward, just some isolated voters coming and going.

 

“Everything seems to be going smoothly,” she said, adding that there were a few voters who used to use the center she was working at but were changed to a different [Webster Avenue] voting center, which she said was now covering a bigger area. Asked for her views on redistricting, she said, “I think it’s complicated for a lot of people, and you have a lot of older people in this area that’s used to coming here to vote. Now, they have to go.. [elsewhere].”

 

She continued, “So, some of them get discouraged, and they’re like, ‘I’m not moving. That’s too far, and I can’t go on there. I just have to vote.’ I just feel that they should have just kept everything the way it was at some point, because you have to take into consideration, in a lot of these areas, the elderly population. A lot of them, they’re on canes or they’re on walkers and they can’t take that little extra walk down.”

 

Tania added, “Imagine if it was wintertime and it was snowing, or even if it was raining today, the way they said they came here [specifically] to vote. They’re definitely not traveling all the way down [there]. So you’re losing votes instead of gaining, you know what I mean? Because people aren’t voting. ‘I’m not going all the way over there [to an alternate site]. I’ll be back in December.’ For some of them, they don’t come out and then, they don’t know in December that they have to go over there. Yeah, so it’s kind of complicated. I just feel bad for the elderly.”

Anna Marin said there were no issues with the voting machines at her voting center. Asked is she would like to say who she voted for, she said, “Gustavo Rivera. Very proud of that. When my family had housing issues, his team did excellent,” she said. Asked for her thoughts on redistricting, she said, “Well, especially for the elderly, it’s a little tedious for them. They don’t understand certain things. So, they need more prompts, they need someone more on point with them, but they’re trying their best,” she said.

 

Asked what was her top priority going into the primaries, she said, “Oh, well, the labels. I mean, the signs are easy to follow. I was actually crossing this way because my car was on this part, and it was a rep for Gustavo in the corner who said, ‘Vote!’ I completely forgot about it. I went around, and I came to the front entrance of the school. Everything’s well labeled. That’s what I like. It’s big. It’s not, like, tiny.”

 

Asked if there was a policy issue that was most pressing for her, she asked, “You mean the selection of the location?” We said more so in terms of policy. Laughing, she said, “Well, that’s why I voted for my man. I’m with UFT. I am employed with the city, but our union is UFT, and they’re recommending to vote for Gustavo, but I have my own personal, you know…..what he’s done for health care, and he’s also… the housing with that situation. Personally, I can say that his crew did amazing, always on top, holding up parents, following up.”

 

Asked about the importance of voting, she said, “A lot of people feel that you’re voting and you’re wasting your time, but if you don’t vote, you’re also wasting your time, because you don’t know who’s going to be elected, and I think that we have to, as citizens of the United States, we have that freedom. Other countries don’t have it, and it’s very important that we do vote, whether our candidate wins or not. You know, sometimes it’s discouraging, but we still have that. That’s our honor, that’s a privilege for us to vote. That’s very important.”

 

Asked how she felt about the primaries being split up, she said, “I don’t want to tell you my age, but I remember just back in the day, you just made an ‘X’ and that’s it. Now, it’s like you got to fill a box, and I think that could be a little bit tedious for the elderly or physically challenged, but otherwise, it’s a better system.”

 

Gloria Encarnacion is a former elementary school teacher, whose daughter is also a teacher. She said there were no issues with the voting machines at her poll site. “It was easier than last time,” she said. “The last time, we had to go to three places and we were not found in [any] one. I have been voting here for the 24 years that I’ve lived in this area, and you see my condition?” she said, referencing her walking aid and adding that she had had a hip/knee replacement [twice]. “I had to go all the way down to P.S. 54 [2703 Webster Avenue] and they couldn’t find me there. Then they moved me back. It was a whole situation. I was very upset,” she said referring to the June primaries.

 

Encarnacion put the poll site changes down to redistricting. “I made sure I made my calls [after the June primaries],” she said. “I complained because it was not fair for me, and him [her partner]. He has difficulty to walk too, so it was not considerate at all. They had to find out who could vote, and who cannot, and we took our time to come here, to then be resent to one place on Valentine [Avenue], and then to another place, and then finally to [P.S.] 54, and I had to take my phone and look it up, and that was my place, and they couldn’t find me there, so it was messed up.”

 

Encarnacion said if she had had the same ordeal in August, she would not have voted. Asked if she had enough information about the candidates going into the election, she said, “Yes, I do my reading, I do my research. I know what they’re good for. They all
promise….. or not but the best that I could find, that’s what I did.”

 

Asked what was her top issue going into the election, Encarnacion said, “First of all, around this area, I’m not focusing on myself but on the area. There is garbage all over the place. There’s protection for especially the elderly. That’s one of the main concerns and also, rent. Stuff that I guess everybody is living and depending on. Those were my….I’m not just addressing it for me. I’m addressing it for everybody, because the strength is not just the one, it’s in the many, and that’s what I focus on.”

 

Asked about the importance of voting, the former teacher said, “It is like breathing. It is, automatically, if you see that things are deteriorating.. What can I do to make it better, not just for me, for my family, but for everybody else? Because I don’t want to live [on] an island by myself. I want to live in a cluster, where everybody can help each other out, and voting is one of those qualities, that if used properly, and select the proper people, and I guess the last five / six years we have plenty to focus on of what has been going around, just the one vote, it is important to me. It absolutely is important to me.”

 

Asked if she would encourage others to vote, Encarnacion said, “Of course. That’s your voice. If you don’t talk, somebody’s gonna talk over you. So you don’t have to be loud, but you got to be focused on what is going to work for everybody, not just for you. It’s not a party thing, it’s not the definite party thing or a religion thing. It’s everybody. It’s human to need air, to be cleaning streets, all of that stuff.”

 

She concluded, “We come from a group of people that…..we like to read. We like to prepare ourselves, not just for ourselves, because it is like planting a seed. That seed could feed me, feed you, feed somebody else, not just me. When you give, you always get back.”