During the monthly crime stats press conference on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters the city “won’t tolerate any voter intimidation” in regards to Donald Trump asking his supporters in becoming poll watchers on Election Day.
“We won’t tolerate any voter intimidation,” de Blasio answered during the Q&A segment when asked about the “precautions in place to limit any voter intimidation.”
“Our officers are prepared if there is any systematic effort to disrupt it.”
Trump has warned about the issue of voter fraud across the country. At the final presidential debate, Trump cited a recent 2012 Pew Center research that found that 24 million voter registrations are no longer valid, with 1.8 million deceased individuals are still registered as active voter in the roll book and about 3 million registrations are registered in more than one state.
The issue of voter fraud became a center focus in New York City when a Democrat Board of Elections Commissioner Alan Schulman was caught in an undercover recording by Project Veritas describing the type of voter fraud occurring — from de Blasio municipal ID program is not verified properly and contributes to election fraud, as well as organizations bus people around to vote at multiple voting sites in minority communities.
De Blasio blasted Schulman assertions about voter fraud and called for his resignation.
“What he said was entirely inappropriate and unfair and absolutely the reverse of what someone should be saying on the Board of Elections. He should really step down,” de Blasio said. “There’s been no concerns to speak of about fraud. This is just urban legend that there’s a fraud problem. He’s supposed to be guaranteeing maximum voter participation, and his statements and his values obviously indicate he’s not trying to do that.”
Regarding protocols on Election Day, the NYPD Chief Terry Monahan noted the 1,205 polling sites in all five boroughs will have a police officer specifically assigned to the site. Monahan added if any issues arises, NYPD officers are expected to either call and work with the Board of Election appointed inspectors and NYPD Legal Bureau to determine the “course of action to take.”
With Tuesday’s election along with both candidates expecting to hold their election night event in New York City, the NYPD is preparing to beef up security for the long day. The NYPD will publicly discuss the details for Tuesday at a special news conference this week.