Lines, malfunctions as city votes

By William Murphy  NewsDay
Staff Writer

November 2, 2004, 9:45 AM EST

Long lines, machine malfunctions and a Board of Elections telephone snafu marked early morning voting in the city today.

Voters who telephoned the Board of Elections to find out their polling place often got a recorded message: "Thank you for calling VOTE-NYC. Customer service representatives are not available at this time. Please call back."

Problems with the phone lines were first reported late yesterday, but persisted during the morning. Telephone calls to the board staff were not returned.

Two women who voted in Astoria shortly after the polls opened reported two broken machines and confused poll workers at the site at the Boys and Girls Club on 21st Street at 30th Road.

Kathleen Warnock, 44, said she was the second person to vote at her site and the machine was broken. She and her friend, Donna Bungo, 53, said they filled out paper ballots.

Both women said poll workers had problems matching up their voting slips with the ballots, which were left on a table because the required secured box was not available.

"I'm very scared that my vote didn't count," Warnock, a travel editor, said in a telephone interview.

Bungo, who moved here from Ohio two years ago, said there was not a separate table to fill out the paper ballot so she had to push stacks of paper ballots aside on the workers table so she could fill out the form. "I just wonder how accurate the election can be," said Bungo, a security manager.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer stood in line with other voters at P.S. 321 in Park Slope just before 8 a.m. and praised the spirit of the voters.

"We're waiting on line with everyone else, my family and I, to vote. It's great. This is democracy..." he said. "...People are waiting and doing their civic duty in a peaceful and quite a respectful way. It is one of the great things about this country," he said.

The New York Public Interest Research Group has its own hotline to answer Election Day questions: (212) 822-0282.