Do You Think the New York Election Trouble Was Intentional?

One day before the New York presidential primary, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the state’s Board of Elections.

Hundreds of New Yorkers signed onto the lawsuit, alleging that their party preferences were changed without their knowledge.

Then on Tuesday, the day of the primary, numerous reports surfaced about “broken machines and belated polling” throughout Brooklyn and Queens.

Later in the afternoon, the city’s comptroller, Scott Stringer, announced that his office would begin “auditing the management and operations of the Board of Elections in order to identify the failings and make recommendations to improve performance going forward.”

On Wednesday, “Democracy Now!” featured Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She pointed out that New York has been on the “bottom of the list” in voter participation for years.

While there were some outlandish claims about election fraud—since proven false by Snopes.com—there clearly were numerous errors in the primary process throughout the state.

The aforementioned New York lawsuit is still underway (although a federal judge denied the plaintiff’s request for an emergency action allowing unregistered voters to participate in the primary).

Arizona has been battling similar allegations of serious election fraud, and many voters accuse state officials of purposely suppressing the right to vote.

Truthdig wants to know what you think: Were the mistakes in New York’s primary honest human error, or were they intentional?