NY: Heavy Turnout, Few Problems

By Spencer S. Hsu
Voting in New York was reportedly heavy statewide, with isolated accounts of machine malfunctions in Brooklyn, a major battleground between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Spokesmen for the New York state and New York City boards of elections declined to discuss voting totals, but a state Democratic Party official said balloting was going as smoothly as could be expected.

"There's heavy turnout everywhere, we're hearing across the board. There's tons of street activity in every major city, and no real problems," said Jonathan Rosen, New York Democratic Party spokesman.

"Of course, when you're running an election statewide with millions of people using lever machines, there's going to be scattered problems, but nothing is out of the ordinary," Rosen said.

In New York City, where Obama has waged a block-by-block fight reaching out to African American supporters and liberal voters in Brooklyn, Queens and parts of Manhattan, some complaints surfaced of polling place problems.

"I have personally gotten some calls in regard to some Brooklyn polling sites," said Valerie Vazquez, director of communications for the city board of elections. "However, once we sent out our polling site monitors and technicians, they realized some of it is either voter error or poll worker error, not necessarily any breakdown in the machines. So these problems are quickly remedied."