By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Got a problem with your ballot? Get on Twitter or call 311.
That’s the advice of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who announced Thursday via Twitter that the city will be using its 311 hotline and the social networking site to track complaints on Election Day.
The directive comes after a Primary Day plagued by problems with the new voting machines — which the mayor called a "royal screw-up" — and follows Tuesday's ousting of the head of the Board of Elections (BOE).
For the first time, the city’s 311 operators will log information about complaint calls before passing voters over to the BOE, the Mayor’s Office said in a statement.
The 311 operators will log information about whether voters had problems with poll sites, the new voting machines or poll site workers, and then share that information with the Board as well as the public, the statement said.
Bloomberg also encouraged voters to Tweet about problems at the polls using the hashtag #nycvotes, and said that his office as well as the Board will be listening.
The Board has been under increased scrutiny following a series of gaffes, including misprinted ballots, poor coordination, and poll site opening delays.
The mayor described the performance "unacceptable" in a statement Thursday, adding, "New Yorkers deserve better."
The board testified at a City Council hearing earlier this month that it had logged a total of 2,470 primary-related complaints, but it did not make the information readily available to the public. Instead, it commissioned a pricey poll to gauge voters' experiences.
