Voting Problem? New York's Election Protection Hotline Is Open Monday and All of Election Day
Attorney General Letitia James's Election Protection Hotline — (866) 390-2992 — is staffed Monday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Election Day from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for mail-ballot, registration and poll-site problems.
Every election produces the same small emergencies: a mail ballot that never arrived, a name missing at the poll site, a machine down at the wrong hour. New York's standing answer to them is a phone number — the Attorney General's Election Protection Hotline, at (866) 390-2992 — and Attorney General Letitia James's office has announced its hours for the last days of this election.
The hotline troubleshoots and works to resolve issues voters meet voting by mail or in person, during early voting and on Election Day, and the office's guide answers questions on the absentee and mail ballot process, registration issues and problems at the polls. Complaints can also be submitted online.
The hours track the election's shape: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through the early-voting period and again on Monday, Nov. 2 — the day between, when there is no voting but there are still deadlines — and Wednesday, Nov. 4; and the full polling day on Tuesday, Nov. 3, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., exactly the hours the city's polls are open.
Monday is the right day to use it. A voter who discovers a problem on Monday — a ballot unreturned, a registration in doubt — still has Tuesday to fix it in person. A voter who discovers it at 8 p.m. on Tuesday has an hour. The number is the same either way; the time to call it is before you need it.
