Council Member Brooks-Powers speaks on street renaming and ballot curing in jails

Ready for me?

You may begin.

Thank you, Mr.

Majority Leader.

I'm proud to have two of my bills before the council today.

First, Intro 927A renames a stretch of Shorefront Parkway back to Edgemere Avenue, as the current name isn't consistently recognized by USPS, Google Maps, and other address systems.

That corridor will soon be home to Auburn East 1,650 new homes.

Second, Intro 786A aims to improve ballot submissions in city jails.

In less than two weeks, New Yorkers will go to the polls, although many individuals in Department of Correction custody remain eligible to vote.

Participation has historically been extremely low, in part due to challenges in the absentee and early mail ballot systems.

It is far too easy for a vote to be lost to a missing signature on the ballot envelope, an envelope being incorrectly sealed.

or a ballot being sent off without the correct envelope.

Intro 786A requires that before the department sends a ballot to the Board of Elections, it must check the envelope that is signed and dated, as well as signed by anyone who helped the voter and actually contains a ballot.

Then the department must give the voter the chance and means to fix any problem.

These simple fixes aim to increase the number of ballots received and counted by the Board of Elections because being in custody does not end anyone's right to vote.

A ballot should not be thrown out for an error that could have been caught.

And with that, I ask my colleagues to vote in support of these two pieces of legislation.

Thank you.