Group claims BOE violated Civil Rights Act

Latino Justice, a non-profit organization that advocates for Latino civil rights, claims to have hard evidence that the Board of Elections’ lack of “adequate bilingual assistance” disenfranchised Latino voters during the June 26 congressional primary.

The organization last week appealed to the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the election, with  what it claims are new details. 

Latino Justice is accusing the Board of Elections of violating the Voting Rights Act, which requires bilingual assistance for Spanish-speaking voters.

Rep. Charles Rangel defeated state Sen. Adriano Espaillat by 1,086 votes, but problems with the Board of Elections sparked an inferno of accusations about voter suppression and election fraud. Many voters complained of having to fill out affidavit ballots. Many election districts in areas thought to be strongholds for Mr. Espaillat initially reported zero votes. 

Amid the confusion, Mr. Espaillat filed a lawsuit against the Board of Elections alleging that the results of the June 26 primary were flawed because of voter suppression, intimidation and broken voting machines.

Shortly after Election Day, Latino Justice set up a hotline for those who encountered problems while voting. A July 18 letter from Latino Justice to the DOJ ways the hotline received more than 60 calls, a third of which were about the shortage of Spanish language assistance at poll sites.

According to Latino Justice, it sent a letter to the DOJ that included a list of voters’ names. Some of the names were supplied to Latino Justice from other sources, Dominican American National Roundtable and the Dominican American Bar Association, as well as state Sen. Adriano Espaillat’s campaign. It is unknown how many names Latino Justice sent to the DOJ or how many Mr. Espaillat’s campaign sent to Latino Justice. 

Though the organization previously sent out press releases alleging poll workers had turned away Spanish-speaking voters from poll sites, the most recent letter does not include any such allegations. The specific incidents listed include quotes from people saying either nobody spoke Spanish at the site, there were no interpreters or not enough interpreters.

Latino Justice included details of 15 incidents in the letter. Every incident occurred in Manhattan, which contradicts previous claims of a campaign staffer for Mr. Espaillat, who said on July 5 that the reason the suit was filed in Bronx Civil Court was because some of the incidents occurred in the Bronx.

The organization also contends that many of the district leaders appointed by Mr. Espaillat were not stationed at polling sites or were transferred shortly before polls opened on June 26.

Meanwhile, the City Council’s Governmental Operations Committee will hold a hearing on the Board of Elections counting procedures on Wednesday, Aug. 8. The BOE initiated changes to how it counts votes on election night last week. Instead of manually tallying results after polls close, the preliminary tallies released to the public will come directly come from USB drives at polls sites.

It is unclear if that has satisfied the City Council or if the City Council will look into the allegations of voter suppression. 

The Department of Justice would not comment on the letter they received from Latino Justice.

Latino Justice did not respond to calls for comment.