MANHATTAN — The New York City Board of Elections executive director said Tuesday an initial mailer warning people they were in danger of being kicked off the voting rolls may not have gone out before the New York primary election.
Michael Ryan said that the first of several warnings sent to voters believed to have moved may not have been mailed last May, ahead of the April 19 primary that was riddled with problems, including more than 125,000 Brooklyn voters being expunged from the voting rolls.
Two other notices warning voters about their being removed from polls were sent, he added.
"It appears from a very preliminary perspective that the first step in terms of confirmation notice may not have happened," Ryan said during a board meeting in Lower Manhattan.
"[We need to] do what is required to restore the confidence of the public at large."
The bulk of to-be-purged voter information was then made public on July 7, 2015, Ryan said, after being sent to the State Board of Elections.
The purged list was also not included in a November report by the state, according to the director.
Ryan added that the board is now "laser-focused" on making sure affidavit ballots filled out by eligible voters unable to cast ballots are counted.
Some advocates have called for the board to count all affidavits, but Ryan said they must first verify which ones are valid.
"[We're] not going go engage in a process to assuage people’s feeling just to say we did something," the director said.
The board also voted on Tuesday to ratify the previously announced suspension of Chief Clerk Diane Haslett-Rudiano after the Brooklyn voting rolls snafu.
Comptroller Scott Stringer's office also planned to audit the agency to investigate the purge and other complaints like polling places being moved without voter notification.
Stringer's office set up a webpage for people to document any voting issues they encountered.
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was also conducting his own investigation after his office received more than 1,000 complaints during primary day.
The state Board of Elections did not return an immediate request for comment.
