NYC Board of Elections Adds Hours For Early Voting This Weekend

 New Yorkers who want to cast their votes early now can head to the polls for nine more hours this Friday through Sunday.

Today in its weekly meeting, the New York Board of Elections (BOE) just voted 8-2 to extend the hours of early voting, which are as follows:

Friday: 7am-5pm

Saturday: 7am-5pm

Sunday: 7am-4pm

       Although voters seem to be waiting without complaint, New Yorkers have been enduring blocks-long lines that can take up to four hours at the city’s 88 polling locations.

   As of 2pm today, the fourth day of early voting, the BOE said that 350,000 people have already voted early and in person.

  Among the voters waiting in line outside the Park Slope Armory today was Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has been enthusiastically encouraging New Yorkers to vote early.

   Yesterday in a press conference, in addition to asking the BOE  to expand this weekend’s hours for early voting, the asked the Board to bring out now the extra polling machines the city has in storage to accommodate the crowds on Election Day on Nov. 3, which is one week from today.

   “This is an historic moment,” the mayor said yesterday, adding that more staffing, more voting machines, and shorter lines were necessary. “The BOE needs to act like it is a historic moment.  

    “And if the Board of Elections says it doesn’t have the money, let me say right now, the city of New York will provide the resources.”

 After calling the democratic process “sacred," the mayor said, "We will make sure the board has what it needs. They cannot claim they won’t have the resources. This is about doing the right thing and making voting easier for all New Yorkers.”

   Mayor de Blasio told reporters that he was happy to wait in line for hours with the other New Yorkers who were all there, he said, because "they want to make their voices heard.” The mayor looked at his phone and chatted amiably with the other voters, who stood in a socially distanced lines.

   “Everyone else is waiting,” said the mayor, who had been in line for more than 40 minutes and was still waiting to vote at 2 pm. “They’re doing it because they care. I admire everyone on this line and I’m going to join them."

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