Confusion, Disorganization at E. 17th St. Polling Site

At the polling site at 920 E. 17th St., voters were repeatedly given wrong information, being sent to wait at the wrong district line and having to wait again after the mistake was discovered.

“They have no idea what they’re doing,” said one woman as she and her elderly mother joined the back of her new line.    

Frank Canzanella, a 62-year-old taxi driver who lives on 19th St. and Avenue H chuckled a bit when informed he had been sent to the wrong district.

“I’m a much more patient man than when I was younger,” he said. “But I think it’s sad that we couldn’t have been more organized.”

The confusion was multiplied by the fact that many of the voters were coming to the polling site for the first time after district lines were redrawn.

The site, which serves residents of Ditmas Park’s Fiske Terrace section as well as voters from Midwood, was located in the basement of an apartment complex tucked into a corner where two railroad lines converge.

“This place is very difficult to find. There are so many dead ends,” said Lilia Arbuzova, a retired accountant, who said she almost ran out of the little gas she has left while looking for the site.

Canzanella and Arbuzova both said they braved the confusion and wait because they wanted to vote for Mitt Romney.

“It’s just important that I express my convictions,” Canzanella said.

Betty Jo Lane, a 69-year-old homemaker who votes every four years, was told by 311 that her polling site was switched. 

But when she got to the front of the line, she wasn’t on the list. She voted by affidavit ballot.

Lane said she would keep her fingers crossed.

“I hope they turn them in, and I hope they are all counted, because it’s important,” she said.