A MODEL OF VOTING EFFICIENCY

Election Day in New York City often means long lines, broken machines and last-resort paper ballots. However, at the Robert F. Kennedy School, at 110 E. 88th St., voters flowed smoothly in and out of the building, according to Vinny Milo, election coordinator. Mid-afternoon, Milo was strategically perched at a hallway corner asking people if they had voting cards; if not, he directed them to a table where they could find out their election district. At that time, the longest wait time had been 45 minutes's and that occurred during the pre-work voting crush, Milo said. His job was much easier around 3 p.m., when there was little to no wait. â??We move everyone through pretty quickly, Milo said, pausing to direct each voter that turned the corner. â??We"re pretty efficient here. Though the Kennedy school appeared to avoid many of the confusing scenarios other voters encounter at their polling sites, there were, of course, some hurdles. Around 10 people were kicked off the voter roll, which often means the voter will fill out a paper, or affidavit, ballot. These ballots are counted days after the election. One man, Milo said, exercised his right to have a judge order that he vote in a booth. Judges are stationed at two locations in Manhattan's Varick Street and 125th Street's and can force polling stations to allow people to vote in a booth if they have been wrongly booted off the voter roll. Susan Garson, who had to fill out an affidavit ballot, walked out of the gymnasium in tears as she put on her dark brown sunglasses. Garson, who lives on East 87th Street between Second and Third avenues, was removed from the voter roll, despite frequenting that polling site for years, most recently for the Sept. 9 primary. â??I don"t trust it, she said of the affidavit ballot. â??It"s a terrible feeling. Even if the ballot was guaranteed to go through, Garson, who said she voted for Democratic nominee Barack Obama, wanted to step into the voting booth to cast her ballot. â??You look forward to voting, Garson said. â??I didn"t think it would affect me this way but it"s upsetting.