By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The city's Board of Elections missed the deadline for sending ballots to thousands of soldiers stationed overseas, raising fears their votes may arrive too late to count for the Nov. 2 election.
The city was required to ship all ballots by Oct. 1, after being granted a federal extension. But the board missed its extended deadline, board spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez admitted Monday.
The board was still at work printing and mailing ballots last week and through the weekend, Vazquez said. The last military and federal ballots were delivered to their respective post offices on Sunday, Oct. 10 — more than a week past the cutoff date.
All types of absentee ballots were also uploaded to the State Board of Election's website on Friday, Oct, 8.
Three other counties, Erie, Niagara, Putnam and Westchester, also failed to mail their absentee ballots to military and non-military voters on time, FoxNews reported.
There are about 50,000 city residents currently serving overseas, the Daily News said.
The gaffe comes as the city board is already under fire for delays and confusion at the polls during September's primary.
Eric Eversole, the executive director of the Military Voter Protection Project, a non-profit dedicated to protecting service members' rights to vote, described the gaffe as a "disgrace."
"It's absolutely egregious," he said, adding that he believes the delay will "absolutely" compromise service men and women's ability to vote.
It takes up to 30 days for ballots to be shipped to the front lines of Afghanistan and Iraq, he said, and there are only 22 days to go.
"There are certain troops that will not be able to receive these ballots prior to the election," he warned.
New York is the only state to his knowledge that has had delays.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg told FoxNews Monday that he did not know whether or not the ballots had been sent, but if they hadn't it would be "reprehensible."
"We send our young men and women overseas to fight and to die for us and we don’t care enough to make sure they get the right to exercise their franchise? That’s what they’re over there fighting for as much as anything else," he was quoted as saying.
Sen. Chuck Shumer was equally shocked.
"Our troops sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms. They should never, ever be denied the right to vote," Schumer told the News.
"Put these ballots on the next plane to Afghanistan. There is absolutely no excuse for failing to get this done," he was quoted as saying.
The board of elections spokeswomen did not respond to questions seeking an explanation for the delay.
Phones at the State Board of Elections ran unanswered. The office is closed on Columbus Day.
