Brooklyn Voting Site Won’t Move to Church
An attempt to move a voting site to a Brooklyn church was nixed over concerns that Orthodox Jews would be disenfranchised.
According to a news release issued from his office, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, an Orthodox Jew, intervened after residents in New York’s 73rd and 74th election districts were notified that their polling site was being moved from a public school to St. Agatha’s Church over worries that the school could not accommodate enough voters.
Hikind said there were large crosses on the interior and exterior of the Catholic church.
“Who knows how many Orthodox Jewish or other voters would have been disenfranchised by the Board of Elections’ decision to move these voters to a church?” Hikind said in a statement.
A new site has not yet been identified in time for an upcoming primary for Civil Court judge. Voters will be allowed to cast their vote at the Brooklyn Board of Elections by selecting the “Religious Scruples” box.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
