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The City: State Voter Registration Services in Pandemic Not Working for Multilingual City
The City - New Yorkers looking for a mail-in copy of the state voter registration form or any assistance at all in registering to vote during the pandemic won’t get any direct answers from the state Board of Elections’ dedicated hotline.
The number —800-367-8683 — is answered with a recorded message and the voice mailbox is full. . .
Before the start of the pandemic, staffers from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a New York-based national organization that advances Asian American civil rights, would visit naturalization ceremonies weekly to sign up the city’s newest Americans.
Judy Lei, a voting rights organizer for AALDEF, said that just a week ahead of the city shutdown in March, she registered about 120 new citizens.
“Some people sitting in the room have been waiting close to 10 years to become a naturalized citizen,” she noted.
Lei said she would even field questions from native English speakers about how to correctly fill out the form. . .