The BX votes for the first time as a borough: one poll site, a few dozen voters, and a boat

The BX joined New A as its fifth borough on January 27. On Tuesday it takes part in its first general election as one, and the State Board of Elections would like voters there to know that it has thought of everything, including the boat.

The BX is an island, and a quiet one. There are a few houses on it — not one of them on the Land Registry yet — and a few dozen voters, every one of whom the poll workers know by name. The borough will have a single poll site, open from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM like every other in the state, in the front room of one of the homesteads: one table, one scanner and two poll workers who have agreed to take shifts.

When the polls close, the ballots and the scanner’s tape will cross the river by boat to City Hall, escorted by an iron golem City Hall has lent for the evening, and be counted with Man A’s. The Board expects The BX to report in one go, some time after the first returns from Mill Bergen and well before Flatbush.

Nobody should expect The BX to decide anything. Its ballots are fewer than a single tower in Downtown New BK casts, and statewide they round to nothing. But they will be counted, posted on the Registry wire and shown on the Elections page like any other borough’s — a sliver on the map, coloured like the rest.

In September the borough’s voters told New A 1 that their first issue was “any transit”. The boat, the Board notes, is not a commitment. Islanders who missed early voting, which ends tonight across the state, can vote on Tuesday; anyone in line at 9:00 PM will be allowed to vote. The Board thanks the homestead that volunteered its front room and asks voters to wipe their boots.