Who's afraid of high voter turnout?

A prominent Manhattan Republican slams mailer with voting information [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] [Ad: Get tickets for the New Jersey Symphony's Jaws in concert October 28th through 30th]( Sponsored Message Manhattan GOP commissioner asks why election officials are telling voters about the upcoming election [By Brigid Bergin]( [a protester with a bullhorn] Xinhua/Shutterstock/New York City Board of Elections At least one New York Republican is [worried about high voter turnout in New York City this November](. He also happens to be a commissioner on the city Board of Elections. Manhattan GOP Commissioner Frederic Umane, who has served on the city BOE since 1995, questioned why the agency sent a mailer to all voters this month with basic information about the upcoming general election, including where and when to vote. He raised concerns about cost, why the ten bipartisan commissioners had not approved it and noted that the city BOE was going beyond what it was required to do under state election law. But ultimately, he warned the mailer risked driving up voter turnout in the five boroughs, which could be bad for his party, since Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York City by more than six to one. "If we're only informing voters in a particular part of the state that has a particular registration type of situation, and it's not done statewide, it's a form of getting out the vote in an area," said Umane at the weekly commissioner’s meeting last week. Democrats and voting rights advocates said Umane’s comments fit into a larger pattern of Republicans seeking to undermine confidence in the fairness of election administration in New York. "It wasn't a dog whistle," said Jarret Berg, co-founder of Vote Early NY, a nonpartisan nonprofit that provides voter education information. "He essentially said, 'We don't want high turnout here.'" At the meeting, BOE executive director Michael Ryan explained to Umane that the agency made the decision to send the notice to all registered voters to help mitigate confusion for people whose election district and poll site may have changed as a result of the state’s decennial redistricting process. Umane told Gothamist that he takes issue with what he sees as the "political ramification of that mailing," not the general idea of promoting voter turnout. "It could be thought of as a device to get out the vote in the city of New York, which is traditionally more Democratic than Republican," he said. "And there was not a similar notice sent out in other areas of the state that might be more Republican than Democrat." [Read more here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🗳️ --------------------------------------------------------------- [Ad: Get tickets for the New Jersey Symphony's Jaws in concert October 28th through 30th]( Sponsored Message --------------------------------------------------------------- More political headlines this week: [Lee Zeldin and Kathy Hochul side-by-side] [Two new polls show Hochul's lead over Zeldin is shrinking]( A Siena College poll released on Tuesday found that Gov. Kathy Hochul has an 11-point lead over Rep. Lee Zeldin, her Republican gubernatorial challenger, while a Quinnipiac University poll showed the Democratic incumbent with only a four-point margin. 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The Takeaway highlights a resource for staying informed about the less publicized but highly consequential races at the bottom of your ballot. --------------------------------------------------------------- 🗳️ --------------------------------------------------------------- [Ad: Get tickets for the New Jersey Symphony's Jaws in concert October 28th through 30th]( Sponsored Message [the logo for The People's Guide to Power] [The power of the Dobbs decision]( WNYC/Gothamist senior political reporter Brigid Bergin hosts a conversation about how abortion rights as an issue is playing a role in this year's midterms. [LISTEN]( Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. Your contributions are our largest source of funding and pays for essential political coverage and more. 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