The state Board of Elections is demanding Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new “Democracy NYC” office provide answers about a botched mailing to 400,000 city voters — or face a subpoena for the information.
In a letter fired off Wednesday to “Chief Democracy Officer” Ayirini Fonseca-Sabune, election board co-executive directors Todd Valentine and Robert Brehm said the data has to be delivered by noon Friday.
They said their office has received “a number of complaints from registered voters” — as has the city’s elections board, which reported getting 1,600 calls about the confusing mailing from the city.
In its letter, the city told voters they had been placed on the inactive roll and might have a problem casting a ballot on Election Day, Nov. 6.
But many voters who got the letter told officials they were regular, active voters and couldn;t understand what was going on.
“From the inquiries we received, this information is inaccurate and misleading,” Valentine and Brehm wrote. “Further, it has been reported that many voters listed as ‘active’ received this letter, causing much confusion.”
The state board is demanding: the total number of letters sent, the names and addresses of the voters who got the letters, and a copy of the data used by the city vendor, Chicago-based Civis Analytics, to compile the letters.
Civis Analytics was founded by Dan Wagner, chief analytics officer for Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign.
The board said it needs the information “to best determine how to address this matter and in lieu of a subpoena pursuant to [state] Election Law.”
“Going forward we advocate that Democracy NYC vet elections communications with the State of City BOE and utilize the New York State voter register registration database when engaging in a project that is for a election purpose,” Valentine and Brehm wrote.
The botched mailing cost taxpayers $200,000.
City officials have said Civis did indeed pull voting data from the state Board of Elections but then “scrubbed” those records to create a more “accurate” list of “inactive” voters.
Messages left with the mayor’s office were not immediately returned.
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