voters wait in line to cast their ballots tuesday in manhattan.  | ap photo/david goldman by miranda neubauer 11/08/16 03:10 pm est mayor bill de blasio reiterated his calls for voting reform on the state level in an eight-part twitter post as new yorkers voted tuesday. "i<u+2019>ve seen your tweets about long lines and broken scanners," he tweeted. "i hear you & want to share a few thoughts." he said he applauded new yorkers for their determination and added that it was also important to "thank & be patient with our poll workers. without them the system simply would not work." story continued below but he then suggested that with tuesday's issues, "has it ever been clearer that we need voting reform? we need action here in new york state." he added that "there's no reason" new york can't join other states in offering early voting, electronic poll books and early 'no excuse ' absentee voting. voting issues have been a recent concern for the mayor. de blasio last month said he intended to lead a bipartisan effort to change state voting laws in the next legislative session. at the time, he said the state's voter access issues are <u+201c>something that we should be deeply troubled about." "it<u+2019>s not an overt effort to rollback voting rights. it<u+2019>s the absence of the effort to enfranchise people,<u+201d> he said then. in response to those october comments, a spokesperson for gov. andrew cuomo raised the governor's election system reforms and said "we welcome the mayor to this effort.<u+201d> earlier tuesday, councilman ben kallos, chair of the council's committee on government operations, called for more wheel-chair accessible polling sites, citing long waits in his district which he attributed to the "consolidation of poll sites crammed too many election districts into mega-poll sites." he illustrated the complaint with a video of the line at a school on the upper east side. at a recent hearing of the committee, ahead of the election, city board of election chair michael ryan noted the recent hiring of two accessibility coordinators. the board also intended to deploy nearly 3,000 tablets, which are intended to not just speed up the results reporting process but also aid with checking in voters to help them find their districts. ryan has also said previously that the tablets could be put to use should the state at some point approve electronic poll books. the board of elections has been responding to a wide range of election complaints on twitter so far tuesday, asking users for more information regarding reports of broken machines or indicating that a technician or a monitor has been sent. other issues included some reports of an i.d. being requested even though it is not necessary, voters having to vote with an affidavit ballot even though they say they had voted in the same place for several years and incorrect information being provided by poll workers. the new york times and dnainfo also reported on long lines across the city and cases of broken scanners. a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york education policy and politics a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york energy policy and politics a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york health care policy and politics a free synopsis of our pro morning email about new york real estate policy and politics our morning email with must-read analysis and breaking news on state news and politics a morning email with must-read analysis and breaking news on city news and politics. a weekly round-up of legislation in city council for politics and policy professionals. a reported briefing on money in politics, executive moves, and trends in communications, lobbying and consulting. our twice-a-week digest of news on courts and the law in new york azi paybarah and jimmy vielkind's must-read briefing informing the daily conversation among knowledgeable new yorkers.
de blasio reiterates calls for state voting reform in response to long waits tuesday
miranda neubauer