Brooklyn Voter Purge Disproportionately Affected Latinos

LT Staff

June 28, 2016

Brooklyn Voter Purge Disproportionately Affected Latinos

The areas most affected were Bushwick, East New York, parts of Williamsburg, and Sunset Park and WE WONDER WHY?

 The more than 120,000 voters improperly purged from Brooklyn’s voter rolls are mostly disproportionately Hispanic, and from neighborhoods with large Hispanic populations. WNYC, which first reported the illegal purges ahead of April’s presidential primary, obtained the raw registration data that shows 13.9 percent of voters in Hispanic-majority election districts were taken off the voter rolls, compared to 8.9 percent of voters in all other election districts. By another measure, the purges affected 15.2 percent of voters with last names deemed by the Census to be common to Hispanic people, compared to 9.5 percent of other voters. Humm…now this could not have been by accident.

City Board of Elections director Michael Ryan said, “No one was disenfranchised.” he acknowledged that there were irregularities and said they were the outcome in some misguided mailings by the BOE’s Brooklyn staff.

Testifying before the City Council last month, Ryan told Councilmembers the purge affected “a broad cross-section of voters.”

WNYC’s finding, that Latino voters were affected 60 percent more than any other group, disturbed 12-term Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, whose district overlaps with the most affected areas (Bushwick, East New York, parts of Williamsburg, and Sunset Park).

“I do not want to think that it was deliberate, you know, because that would be voter suppression, and at a time when the Voting Rights Act is under attack in Washington, to have this type of action in a city and state like New York, a Democratic city, it’s just beyond any comprehension,” Velazquez told the radio station.

“How could they purge 120,000 and no one knew that this was happening? It’s just, by looking at that map I could say, ‘Hey, I’ve been targeted or my district has been targeted,’ just by looking at it. By looking at the numbers. We’ll see. But it’s not going to end here”. – Said Congresswomen Velazquez

 The Justice Department is now investigating the city BOE’s handling of voter records as well, WNYC reports. Two clerks who ran the Brooklyn office remain on unpaid suspension.

For more on WNYC’s findings, check out this map of purge data

What is Voter Purging? ( AKA voter caging)
Voter caging is a tactic that specifically refers to times when a political party or other partisan organization sends registered mail to addresses of registered voters that they have identified as likely to be unfriendly to their candidate. All mail that is returned as undeliverable is placed on what is called a “caging list.” The group that sent the mail then systematically uses this list to challenge the registration or right to vote of those names on it, on the grounds that if the voters were unreachable at the address listed on his or her voter registration, then their registration is fraudulent, and they should not be allowed to vote.

In closing:This situation will most likely affect the  outcome/ results, so a message to you and others. Vote. Participate. Vote and repeat the process. Learn the process and do not let your self be fooled by slick power plays that some individuals may be working on that may keep you from exercising your rights as a citizen and or resident of NY State and America as a whole.  Keep in mind that some folks may be playing chess while your playing checkers, so educate your self on the government and political process.

Click here to see a 5  minute video that outlines the complete process of how a US president gets elected