Dear Editor:
Lost amongst the primary elections on Tuesday, June 7, where we select party representatives to run for State Senator and other local officials, was an election for the County Committee seat in District 15 of Ward E. This was to take place at the polling center at Grace Church. On election day, the polling center opened almost 2 hours late, because none of the poll workers had the key to get into the facility.
The election was won by the slimmest of margins, literally. David Weltz lost to Frank Castellano by a single vote and Annisia Cialone lost to Petra Diaz by two votes. But the two hour late opening broke almost entirely in favor of the winners. Why is that? For one, David and Annisia have a much stronger base is the high rise community. Some of these residences are over 1/2 mile away. Frank and Petra live in the same building, located 1 block away from the polling center, making a later return much easier for their base.
Also, and just as important, the high rise community has a large percent of people who work in NYC. Many have long days, and the only option is to vote before they get to work, as they cannot get back before the poll closes at 8 p.m.
There are no hanging chads this time around and no one thinks anyone did anything intentionally wrong to cause this mess up. There are not going to be any court challenges, and there are not going to be any protests. But we did get this wrong and we ought to take pride in the integrity of all our elections, not just the big ones.
Regards,
Moshe Rozenblit