BUSHWICK — The Board of Elections voter purge that dropped more than 120,000 residents from the voter rolls disproportionately affected Hispanic voters, a WNYC analysis revealed Tuesday.
WNYC obtained a list of residents removed from voter rolls and found that election districts with majority Hispanic voters were among the hardest hit by the purge. Furthermore, the analysis showed that voters with traditionally Hispanic names were purged at a 60 percent higher rate than other Brooklyn voters.
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The purge, which was carried out in the summer of 2015, led to rampant reports of chaos during April's presidential primary election, as residents traveled to their longtime poll sites only to learn they had been removed from the records. Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders called the voting situation "absurd" during a speech that night.
City Board of Election officials responded saying that the purge was a mistake caused by staff at the board's Brooklyn borough office, who booted residents during an attempt to clean up rolls by removing voters who had died or moved. The board suspended Brooklyn Chief Clerk Diane Haslett-Rudiano without pay two days after the election.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won the April 19 primaries, with Clinton winning every congressional district in the city and Trump winning all but one.
