"to remain an Active Voter, you MUST respond to this"

44,000 people erroneously got this notice [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] NYC Board of Elections vendor error triggers 44,000 faulty "inactive" voter registration notices [By Brigid Bergin]( [a BOE form telling someone to confirm their change of address] James Ramsay/WNYC Gothamist has learned that nearly 44,000 New York City residents have been erroneously sent a notice warning that they could be dropped from the voter rolls if they don't verify their home address. The form, sent by the New York City Board of Elections, usually goes out to voters who’ve moved to a new residence. But these voters had not moved, and many had voted as recently as November. The notices were among some 900,000 voter records that needed to be updated as part of the BOE’s annual review of its voter database. The updates are triggered for several reasons, which include the voter informing the BOE of a change of address, or the agency receiving information from the United States Postal Service indicating that the voter may have moved. The change of address information is supposed to be cross-checked against the resident’s voter history, something that did not happen. This most recent error marks the latest in a series of administrative mistakes by the beleaguered BOE. Some of those blunders include [releasing flawed preliminary]( [ranked-choice voting data]( disproportionately [assigning voters to early voting poll sites]( leading to long lines, and [sending out misprinted absentee ballot envelopes]( ahead of the 2020 presidential election, a mistake it blamed on a vendor. This time, the Board again blamed its vendor, n-Tier Technology LLC, for the mistake. The New Hampshire-based corporation has been working with the BOE for more than a decade to support the city’s voter registration system. Their current contract totals nearly $4 million, according to CheckbookNYC. BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan said that for the vast majority of voters who received the form, the most prudent thing to do would be to just fill it out. "If they got that notice, what they should do is send it back to us and say, 'I’m here, I’m good, I want to stay voting,'" Ryan told Gothamist. "That’s why this safety net exists to protect the voters’ rights." While the BOE is encouraging anyone who received the notice to complete it and send it back, Ryan said they also plan to send a second notice to voters who received the form in error to alert them to the mistake, confirm they are still an active voter, and stress that no additional action is needed. The verification process is supposed to serve as a failsafe to allow a voter to confirm their address before the BOE changes their designation from an active to inactive voter. Active voters are listed in the Election Day poll book and can cast their ballot on the machine; inactive voters must complete an affidavit ballot which goes into a separate envelope so that the BOE can confirm the voter’s registration. A voter who missed this notice and then failed to vote in two consecutive federal elections runs the risk of being purged from the voter rolls entirely. Election officials said they began to receive calls last week from concerned voters who had not moved and were worried about why they had received the form asking them to verify their address. Voters who spoke with Gothamist expressed similar concerns. "It makes me feel like someone is not on top of their stuff," said Inna Aizenshtein, a hypnotherapist who lives and votes in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. "It’s like, 'you must take this action otherwise you’re going to be punished,' which is very strange, because I have voted where I lived already several times," she said. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🗳️ --------------------------------------------------------------- For Further Reading [Republic Lee Zeldin speaks at the state GOP convention]( ALL CRIME, ALL THE TIME [NY GOP hopes tough-on-crime platform will drive voters to polls]( In its attempt to win statewide races in blue New York, the GOP is banking on crime as the issue that can earn votes from independents and some Democrats. [a judge in a black face mask]( NEW DISTRICTS HOLD, FOW NOW [NY judge won't pause 2022 elections amid redistricting fight]( Republicans' legal challenge to Democrat-drawn congressional and state legislative districts is ongoing, but a judge said the upcoming elections won't be put on hold because of it. [Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaking at a church in Brooklyn]( UNEMPLOYABLE? 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