by Barbara Nevins Taylor and Nick Taylor 

If you wanted to make sure your vote counted and you voted early in New York City, you probably waited in line. Nearly 200,000 people came during the first two days of early voting and some waited for hours before they got to fill out their ballots.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “This is a great sign that people may be getting involved in an unbelievably powerful manner. And this could be great for our future as well.”  

But voting was tarnished by the long lines, caused by the consolidation of polling places and confusing and inconsistent hours.  Here’s how to find your polling place for early voting and the hours it’s open.  Once you’re there, you’ll find tablets replacing the old paper forms for signing in and matching signatures.  Filling out your ballot and feeding it into a scanner is a fairly smooth process, at least where we voted at the St. Anthony of Padua Church in Soho.    

Still, it could be easier.  We arrived near the opening time of 10 a.m. on Sunday.  Once our line started moving, it snaked from Houston Street down Macdougal to Prince, then east two blocks to Thompson, north again to Houston, and then a block back east to Sullivan.  We entered the voting area around 11:30, and felt like the time we spent was worth it.  

But a lot of early voters have less time.  That’s why de Blasio called for the Board of Elections to “Step up” and  put more machines and more workers on the job to allow more people to vote before the November 3 election.  He said, “There are plenty of election machines, voting machines that are on hold for Election Day. Those machines should be brought out now and put in the early voting sites so that New Yorkers can vote more easily. The hours right now – the weekend hours for early voting are only 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. This coming weekend, those hours should be expanded.”

De Blasio repeated his call to abolish the Board of Elections, where nepotism and political patronage by both Republicans and Democrats get people jobs.

Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voted early in the Bronx and said at a news conference, “There is no place in the United States where two, three, four-hour waits to vote is acceptable. And just because it’s happening in a blue state doesn’t mean that it’s not voter suppression.”

But both she and Mayor de Blasio praised poll workers for their dedication and hard work. 

And most of the voters we talked with felt optimistic about voting and resigned to waiting. Watch the video!