Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D,WF-Fresh Meadows) and Assemblyman Edward C. Braunstein (D-Bayside) announced today a letter sent to New York City Board of Elections (“BOE”) President John Wm. Zaccone in response to the list of approved early voting sites requesting that they identify additional locations in Northeast Queens. Rozic and Braunstein were joined by Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Queens), Congressman Thomas Suozzi (D-Douglaston), State Senator John Liu (D-Bayside), and Council Members Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) and Barry Grodenchik (D-Oakland Gardens).

“Failing to include early voting sites in Northeast Queens undermines state efforts to pass voting reforms addressing the challenges and barriers New Yorkers have come to expect at the polls,” said Assemblywoman Rozic. “Together, we are urging the BOE to ensure Eastern Queens voters are not overlooked in an early voting system that will provide voters with a more streamlined democratic process.”

“The NYS Legislature passed a law earlier this year requiring localities to implement early voting. NYC responded by providing $75 million to the Board of Elections (BOE) to open 100 early voting poll sites. The BOE plans to accept the full $75 million allocation from the City while only opening 38 poll sites,” said Assemblyman Braunstein. “This proposal is absolutely unacceptable and fails to provide the community I represent with a conveniently located early voting poll site. I join my colleagues in demanding that the BOE provide a poll site more easily accessible to the residents of Northeast Queens.”

Last month the BOE released a list of 38 approved early voting sites including seven locations in Queens. Lawmakers noted that the BOE failed to consider a location in proximity to their constituents in Northeast Queens. Currently, the closest approved early voting site is the Al Oerter Recreation Center in Flushing – almost 10 miles out for voters in Bayside, Fresh Meadows, Auburndale, Bay Terrace, Whitestone, Oakland Gardens, Douglaston and Little Neck.

“The passage of early voting in our state will make voting easier and more accessible to New Yorkers,” said Congresswoman Meng. “But that will not be the case in Northeast Queens if there are no early voting sites in the area. Like all New Yorkers, voters in Northeast Queens are entitled to take advantage of the convenience and benefits that early voting provides, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that polling places for early voting are made available in Northeast Queens.”

“When modernizing our election system to encourage higher participation, it is very important for the Board of Elections to make every effort to be more inclusive of the residents of Northeast Queens," said Congressman Suozzi. "Expecting voters, some of them elderly, to travel close to 10 miles to cast their ballot is not a step forward, it is a step backward and I urge the Board of Elections to re-evaluate its list of early voting sites.”

“It is unacceptable for the BOE to neglect northeastern Queens in their map of early voting sites. In fact, it’s incomprehensible that in the BOE’s borough-wide plan, Flushing Meadows Park is the easternmost site,” said State Senator Liu. “The point of voting reforms, including early voting, is to make the democratic process for all citizens easier, and to bolster the public’s trust and confidence in elections: that absolutely must extend to northeastern Queens residents, too.”

“It is completely unacceptable that Northeast Queens has been wholly disregarded in the BOE list of early voting sites,” said Council Member Vallone. “In an age when voter participation is at an all-time low, we should be making it easier for our residents to participate in our democracy, not harder. I urge the BOE to identify additional locations that will ensure the over 5 million registered voters in New York City can readily exercise their right to vote.”

“The advent of early voting in New York State is a commendable move toward increasing access to the ballot box,” said Council Member Barry S. Grodenchik. “But without any local early voting sites, the residents of Northeast Queens would be denied the access that the early voting legislation promised. The board of elections must see to it that every corner of our great city, including its eastern edge, has an accessible early voting site.”

Earlier this year, the State Legislature passed measures to improve access to the polls by modernizing New York’s voting system. The package of legislation included a bill to create a nine day early voting period for residents to vote in person prior to any primary, special or general election day.