The New York City Board of Elections Predictably Fails Again

Recently, the New York City Board of Elections announced pending vote totals in the Democratic Mayoral Primary only to reverse its position within hours due to a major error in including 135,000 computer “test ballots” that were not actual votes. The embarrassing error was corrected and the new results were tallied with Eric Adams being declared the eventual winner of the first ranked choice voting mayoral primary in New York City history.

The New York City Board of Elections has over a hundred year history of incompetence, nepotism and repeated bungling without any meaningful reform. In the next New York State Legislative session, hearings will be conducted into enacting a constitutional amendment to abolish the New York City Board of Elections and eventually replace it with a merit-based professional organization.

You can hear a more in-depth discussion about this topic by listening to my interviews about the Board of Elections on CBS News Radio 880 and WGN Radio. Suffice to say, the Board of Elections mess needs to become a relic of the past through a constitutional amendment or this will surely happen again.