More volunteers than voters at this Woodside poll
During New York’s 2017 primary election day, poll workers often outnumber the voters in the room at the James B. Colgate poll site.
It was a slow primary election day at one of the voting sites in Woodside, Queens, but that’s pretty normal according to the volunteers.
In the early afternoon on Sept. 12, there were more than 20 poll volunteers in James B. Colgate public school, located at 42–00 72nd St., but there were no voters in sight.
There was one information desk worker, five interpreters, 15 table helpers and one police officer — all sitting and looking at their phones or talking quietly to each other.
“It’s hard to predict when people will come,” poll worker Marguerite Coya said. “Sometimes one person will come in an hour and sometimes thirty people will show up at once, but that’s usually after work hours.”
The workers arrived at 5 a.m. and won’t leave until 9 p.m., according to Lily Li, an elderly Chinese interpreter. She has worked the polls for ten years.
“Only about 20 people have voted today so far,” Li said. “I don’t think we’ll get more than 100 people today, but it’s always like this for the mayoral election unless one of the candidates is the same race as one of the communities around here.
After half an hour of inactivity, one couple walked into the school building. Coya greeted them, asked for their identification and directed them to a voting table.
“I don’t think it’s because people are unaware that voting is today,” Coya said. “I think people are just busy or don’t care. They’ll complain later, but won’t vote now.”
