News / Politics

NYC voters angry over broken machines, closed polling places

Tuesday, 19 April 2016 5:09 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 April 2016 5:08 PM ]

A woman casts her vote at a polling station in Brooklyn in the presidential primary for the state of New York, April 19, 2016. (AFP photo)

The US primary election in New York was a disaster at some polling stations on Tuesday morning, with early voters arriving to broken machines and delayed polling.

All three voting machines were broken at a polling place in the Queens borough of New York City when early voters arrived at 6 am.

Volunteers at the school were elections were taking place told voters to place their ballots in a slot, and they would all get processed later.

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” said George Mack, 55, who voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. “Somebody at the end of the day is going to feed (the ballots) through a machine? I don’t have confidence in that.”

Voters in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, couldn't even get close to a voting machine. More than two hours after polls were supposed to open at 6 am, that site was still closed.

“Polling site not open yet,” voter Rebecca Keith tweeted. “Good morning disenfranchisement.” Voters at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn also tweeted about closed polling places around 8 am.

Voters in New York state went to the polls on Tuesday in a pivotal presidential primary as the Republican and Democratic candidates seek to clinch their party’s nominations.

Polls show that Clinton has a double-digit lead over her Brooklyn-born challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, even if nationwide surveys put them at a tie.

Sanders, who has galvanized a youth movement with his call for universal health care, free college education and campaign finance reform, needs a win to keep alive his hopes of winning the presidency.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump, the New York City billionaire whose controversial campaign has horrified the Republican establishment, is well ahead of his rivals Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich.

"It is a rigged and corrupt system but we're going to get there and I believe we're going to do it much more easily than people think," Trump told the roaring crowd. "No New Yorker can vote for Ted Cruz."

The primary elections in New York, the nation’s fourth largest state that is home to a vastly diverse electorate, are the most consequential primary in decades.

Independents are barred from participating in what is a closed primary. Only New York's 5.8 million Democrats and 2.7 million Republicans who registered by last October are eligible to vote.

More than 200 New York voters have joined a lawsuit claiming they were unfairly shut out of the primary after their party affiliation was changed without their consent.

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