On Election Day, would-be voters by the score were turned away from their familiar polling site, PS1 The Courtland School in Melrose, and re-directed to the Classic Community Center four blocks away. Their polling location had been changed without their knowledge.
Many of these individuals said that they have always voted at PS1, and were surprised by the change. One of these voters was Francisco Bermudez, 86, uses a walker. The walk from PS1 to the Classic Community Center took him 20 minutes. Because there was no signage, Bermudez had to ask multiple people along the way to ensure he was headed in the right direction.
Another local resident, Jorge Santana, said he voted in the 2020 presidential election at PS1.
One voter, Keon Simpson, was given an incomplete referral form and returned to PS1 to inform the poll workers, who filled it out for him.
“’I’m trying to help them tackle that little situation,” said Simpson. Because his form was missing the necessary information, he had to get checked in at the new site, rather than skipping ahead as he could have if the form were complete.
“When it gets busier, that’s where the conflict is gonna arise. So I’m trying to talk to the manager here to make sure they fully fill out these slips,” said Simpson.
Over a 15-minute span, at least 13 people were referred to the Classic Center, even though three of seven ballot booths were in use at PS1. At least half of all prospective voters were sent to alternative polling locations.
A poll worker filling out the referral slips said “people are getting discouraged,” and said a few voters simply gave up and decided not to vote.
Jose Cruz, a Republican poll coordinator at PS1, said voters could fill out an affidavit and stay and vote there if they were unwilling–or unable–to travel to their newly assigned polling place.
“My job is to make sure that the voter can exercise their voting rights,” said Cruz. At the check-in desk, however, some voters seemed uninformed about the option of staying to vote at the school.
One poll worker at the check-in desk said there were many more voters in the wrong than the right location at PS1 today. She estimated that around 75% of hopeful voters at this location were sent to another site or given affidavits.
Simone Bethune and her son Khaliek live together up the block from PS1. Simone’s daughter is currently enrolled at the school. But when they arrived to vote, they were told they were in the wrong spot, and given two different locations; Simone was sent to Grand Concourse and Khaliek to The Michelangelo Apartments.
When the poll workers offered her an affidavit, Simone stormed out.
“I got off early to come to vote,” she said. “To come here and I can’t do it– it’s very frustrating. I gotta go all the way on the other side to do it. If we want to vote, people should be able to vote.”
Khaliek, who is Black, said “I feel like this is kind of an extra way to make people of minority communities get frustrated about voting and not vote because now look– she don’t want to vote.”
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