By Jill Colvin 5/10 5:54pm

Florida

The Broadway Democrats. (Photo: broadwaydemocrats.org)

Skirmish Hits Upper West Side Political Club After Liu Endorsement

Members of the Broadway Democrats, one of the Upper West Side’s most influential political clubs, are at odds over their endorsement of John Liu for mayor.

The club’s endorsements process spun into minor chaos late last night when members were forced to complete their counting in the club’s president’s home. Then, early this morning, a member realized the club had miscounted the ballots because of a misinterpretation of the club’s run-off procedures–forcing a re-count that gave the city’s comptroller a victory. Read More

By Ross Barkan 2/27 2:41pm

Close Calls

(Photo: Facebook)

Donovan Richards Wins Queens Special Election

Donovan Richards declared victory today in the Queens special election to replace his mentor, former Councilman James Sanders, putting to rest fears that the election’s outcome would be unknown for weeks or even months in what had become a racially-charged contest.

With all absentee and affidavit votes counted, Mr. Richards padded his razor-thin 26-vote Election Day margin with another 133 votes, while his main competitor, Pesach Osina, only gathered an additional 80. This brought the unofficial tally to 2,646 for Mr. Richards and 2,567 for Mr. Osina, a wide enough margin to avoid an automatic recount. The results will be certified next week. Read More

By Colin Campbell 11/07/12 3:35pm

ferry firewall

The State Assembly map in NYC for net year.

After Election Day, NYC’s Republican Pols Retreat Deeper Into Staten Island

With last night’s elections, a number of seats changed hands between the Democratic and Republican parties across New York State, and indeed the entire country. But in the five boroughs of New York City, it was a one-way street.

At the congressional level, for example, the city lost half its Republican representation with the exit of Queens’ Bob Turner, who unsuccessfully ran for his party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate. GOP Councilman Dan Halloran had his sights on the remnants of Mr. Turner’s district in northeastern part of the borough, but the area’s solidly Democratic tendencies allowed Assemblywoman Grace Meng to easily leap over Mr. Halloran and secure a new gig in Washington D.C. Read More

By Colin Campbell 11/07/12 12:15am

ELECTION DAY!

Grace Meng and Michael Grimm (Photo: Meng Campaign/Getty)

In New York City, Michael Grimm and Grace Meng Win

New York State started off as a key battleground in the Democrats’ battle to retake control of the U.S. House, especially after the courts intervened in the redistricting plan and shook up a lot of traditional boundaries. However, most of these races were focused in areas further Upstate and the suburbs, leaving the heavily Democratic New York City with just two congressional elections of note.

In Queens, Democratic Assemblywoman Grace Meng faced off against GOP Councilman Dan Halloran for a seat crafted from the district remnants of outgoing Congressmen Bob Turner and Gary Ackerman. Despite Mr. Halloran’s polling showing the race a tie, those numbers did not pan out and Ms. Meng is currently ahead by roughly 2-to-1, which matches how Democrats have historically performed within the area. Read More

By Colin Campbell 11/06/12 2:08pm

ballot brouhaha

A Broad Channel voting site. (Photo: @JessicaProud)

Bloomberg Says BOE Has Voters Asking, ‘What’s This, a Third-World Country?’

As New Yorkers crowd into long lines, waiting for the right to vote at polling sites that may or may not have functional machines to tally the votes, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held another press conference to update the city on its recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. While addressing the storm, Mr. Bloomberg, who has criticized the local Board of Elections in the past, did not hold back in his frustration with the issues at the polls today.

“People all around the world would like to have our freedoms and to keep them and extend them, we have to exercise them. I know many people, including myself, are encountering lines at the polls. Be patient, it’s worth the wait,” he said. “From the reports that we’ve gotten, the Board of Elections has run into problems, including late delivery of machines to some sites and late openings. Also, this morning, we learned the Board failed to secure enough fuel for generators at least one poll site; we became aware of it and the Department of Education did deliver fuel to that polling site….If these were the only problems the Board of Elections encountered today, we should consider ourselves very lucky. But, unfortunately, based on its history, that is not likely to be the case.” Read More

By Colin Campbell 11/06/12 10:39am

rock the vote

(Photo: Getty)

Missing Machines, Misinformation and Long Lines: Election Day Off to a Rocky Start in NYC

“We have some other type of crisis here, partially organized by Hurricane Sandy, partially organized by the Board of Elections,” Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny told Politicker this morning, ticking off poll sites that did not receive machines until 8:04 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. respectively, over an hour after they were scheduled to open. “My question is, if they knew, if the Board of Elections knew yesterday this was the poll site that would be assigned today, were they sleeping this morning? It disenfranchises many people.”

We asked if there might be a possibility of a re-do election.

“That is a possibility, I think,” he answered, noting all of the Hurricane Sandy-induced chaos was in the Democratic parts of his district. “I have two parts of the district. Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, which is conservative, and Coney Island and Sea Gate, which is much more liberal, and I’m a Democrat….This is all becoming totally ridiculous. This is not about me, of course. This is about 40,000 voters losing the right to vote.” Read More

By Colin Campbell 7/06/12 8:40am

challenging charlie

J.C. Polanco (Photo: NY1)

Board of Elections: Adriano Espaillat Should Apologize for ‘Appalling’ Attacks

New York City Board of Elections Commissioner J.C. Polanco isn’t happy that State Senator Adriano Espaillat and newspaper editorials are bashing the agency’s ballot-counting operation after last Tuesday’s vote. On Inside City Hall last night, Mr. Palanco simply unloaded on all of them, calling allegations that they may have tilted the process towards Mr. Espaillat’s rival, Rep. Charlie Rangel, “vicious,” “malicious,” “false,” “terrible” and more.

“When we allow for the editorials in New York City to tell our story, when we allow for columnists and other individuals and elected officials who honestly are doing a disservice to their community by not understanding election law, … [to be] going out there and blasting the hardworking men and women at the Board of Elections, we think it’s appalling,” he argued. Read More

By Colin Campbell 7/02/12 8:39am

challenging charlie

Adriano-Espaillat-Headshot

Espaillat Campaign Prepares for Legal Showdown

State Senator Adriano Espaillat certainly can’t be be accused of sitting down after his reported loss to veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel in last Tuesday’s Democratic primary. As Mr. Rangel’s lead whittled down to just 802 votes over the weekend, the Espaillat campaign hired election law guru Marty Connor and promoted a hotline available for voters to register complaints about Election Day shenanigans. A State Supreme Court will hear an injunction request from Mr. Espaillat today and the Board of Elections will start counting more than 2,000 affidavit ballots Thursday morning.

“As the New York State Supreme Court considers the serious voting-access and counting issues in the 13th Congressional District election, we are pleased to welcome Marty Connor to lead our legal team,” Mr. Espaillat’s spokesman, Ibrahim Khan, said in a press release. “Our campaign will continue to push for every vote to be counted in a transparent and democratic process.” Read More

By Colin Campbell 5/31/12 4:40pm

brooklyn's florida

storobin rally

David Storobin Wins Epic State Senate Race

More than two months after the voters cast their ballots in the race to replace Carl Kruger in the State Senate has finally come to a close. The Republican candidate, David Storobin, has won.

“All the votes are in, disputed and otherwise. The count is fully over. David Storobin won by 16 votes,” Mr. Storobin’s campaign wrote on his Facebook page. ” The election will be officially certified on Tuesday at 1:30 pm, but there will be NO MORE counting. David Storobin is the new Senator!” Read More

By Colin Campbell 4/19/12 7:43pm

brooklyn's florida

David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

An Update From Team Storobin [Update]

The March 20th special election between Democrat Lew Fidler and Republican David Storobin continued to drag on this afternoon, as a judge heard, but did not rule on, Mr. Storobin’s motion to dismiss Mr. Fidler’s fraud lawsuit against a bit over a hundred of his absentee ballots. Mr. Storobin is currently holding on to a three-vote lead, so obviously this could prove critical in determining the ultimate winner of the Brooklyn State Senate seat. Read More