It is 6 am now and the polls will be open for the next 15 hours, so make sure that you make your voice heard and vote Democratic!

We have some important election information to share with you, so please read carefully.

As you may know, because of Hurricane Sandy, many voters across the region have been displaced from their homes and many polling locations have been moved. The New York City Board of Elections has you covered. To see if your poll site has moved, please visit http://vote.nyc.ny.us/downloads/pdf/documents/boe/2012GeneralElection/pollsitechangepostsandy.pdf or text “NYCVOTES” or “DONDE” to 877877. If you are registered outside the city, contact the New York State Board of Elections at 1-855-NYS-SANDY.

If you do not know where your polling location is or who is on your ballot, you can find out by visiting http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm.

If you encounter ANY problems within the five boroughs when you go vote, whether it be electioneering within 100 feet of the site’s entrance, broken machines, or even what you perceive to be someone intimidating voters to cast their ballot one way, contact the Board of Elections IMMEDIATELY by calling 1-866-VOTE-NYC or tweeting to them (@BOENYC) using the hashtag #nycvotes.

If you feel that you or someone that you know is being unfairly disenfranchised from voting please call Election Protection at 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Yesterday, Governor Cuomo signed an executive order that will allow any displaced voter in Rockland and Westchester counties, Long Island, and New York City to vote by affidavit at any polling site within the state. However, you may not be able to vote in your local races. You will be required to sign an affidavit saying that you are registered to vote in such a location (under penalty of perjury). But, you may only vote in the races that that coincide with those of the place in which you are voting.

To put it another way, if you live in Greenpoint but will be voting in Williamsburg, many races like President, U.S. Senate, Congress, State Senate, and Assembly may be the same and you would be allowed to vote for almost all the same candidates. However, if you will be voting in Manhattan, likely, the only races in which you would be eligible to vote would be for President and U.S. Senate.

For those that want to make sure that they vote in the down-ballot races, the Board of Elections has established a shuttle service to bring people to and from their polling sites. These shuttles are expected to run every 15 minutes but have been rumored to take up to 30 minutes. If you want more information on this service, NY1 has the information posted on their website at http://www.ny1.com/content/politics/political_news/171862/buses-to-polling-sites-in-brooklyn–queens–staten-island.

Again, if you have any questions or concerns regarding voting, please contact the Board of Elections or tweet to us at @BrooklynYDs and we will do our best to provide whatever information and resources you will need.

P.S. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

Andrew Cuomo, Board of Elections, Election Protection, Hurricane Sandy, NY1, Voting

This has not been a good week for State Senator Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge). Nothing seems to please him anymore. Nothing is up to snuff for him it seems.

Yesterday, City & State reported that Golden has procured more than $770,000 to the Bay Ridge-Bensonhurst Beautification and Preservation Alliance. The non-proft “held a summer concert series and ran a free bus service for neighborhood seniors – both named for Golden.” One problem: Golden founded the Bay Ridge-Bensonhurst Beautification and Preservation Alliance; in fact, Golden himself registered the non-profit with the New York State Department of State. This is not good news since many New York politicians have lately been under scrutiny for having non-profits as their pet-projects on the side and use the organizations for political means (or at least give the impression to do at first glimpse). Being lumped into the same pile as ex-Sen. Pedro Espada’s ethics problems with his Soundview Healthcare Network must not be fun for Marty.

Then, yesterday afternoon, Colin Campbell of the New York Observer (formally of The Brooklyn Politics blog) reported that “Marty Golden is ‘Disappointed’ by Cuomo’s State of the State Speech.” You gotta feel bad for Golden, he had to travel all of the way up to Albany, start the 2012 Legislative Session, and head over to the Empire State Plaza Convention Center to hear Governor Cuomo’s State of the State, all just to be “disappointed.” Golden said in a statement

As a former New York City Police Officer, I am disappointed by the Governor’s failure to focus on an agenda to keep New York’s citizens and families safe. One of the most basic fundamentals New Yorkers must enjoy is a safe State in which to live, work and raise a family. We can’t ignore the fact that there are areas of criminal justice that must be addressed.”

Oh dear, Governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t address public safety in his State of the State Address? Please tell us that that was the only issue Governor Cuomo failed to address.

The Governor also failed to mention efforts to eliminate Medicaid and auto insurance fraud in our State. The longer we allow such acts of fraud to continue, the longer we will suffer financially as a government and as consumers.

But wait, didn’t Governor Cuomo, when he served as New York State Attorney General make one of his key policy issues trying to eliminate such frauds? Okay, I guess Golden can make one mistake every now and then. Wait, that wasn’t the only other thing he got wrong?

Colin Campbell reported this morning that Golden challenger Andrew Gounardes said that Golden is being disingenuous. “Unfortunately, Marty Golden strangely chose to criticize our Governor for being weak on public safety, despite the fact that the Governor proposed expanding the DNA database to cover all crimes,” Gounardes said in a statement. Uh-oh. This just in: it gets worse:

Mr. Gounardes then digs up the past and calls Senator Golden’s criticism “hypocritical and disingenuous,” due to a 2010 vote on legislation to require ammunition to have traceable microstamping. Senator Golden had missed the vote, but said he would have opposed the bill anyway.

(Gatemouth has an interesting piece on these aforementioned stories.)

Now, Celeste Katz of the Daily News is reporting that Senator Golden is upset that a new safe-sex PSA is using slang language (i.e. “raw dogging” as a euphemism for non-protected sex) and promotes safe-sex via satire (the PSA shows what the possible side-effects of unprotected sex are like pregnancies and various STDs). Golden said in a statement

I believe that such an improper advertisement, paid for by the New York taxpayers, should be shown only in age-appropriate high school classroom settings. The fact that this video is available for people of all ages to view on the internet is alarming. . . In this day and age, it is dangerous to indirectly advocate for safe sex. This campaign has the potential to confuse our youth and encourage them to actually engage in unsafe sex. This advertisement campaign must be reevaluated as it is my belief that it could actually cause unintended consequences, such as a rise in teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Is this true? Let’s see what raunchy language and innuendos this PSA has

Oh no, I don’t know if unprotected sex is safe or not. Hold on, there is more to Kazt’s article

[Daily News reporter Simone] Weichselbaum reported that state DOH spokesperson Peter Constantakes defended the tax-dollar sponsored videos as not “obscene” or “x-rated,” while students said using teen talk instead of medical jargon is a most effective way to get their safe-sex message across.

Brooklyn state Assemblyman Rafael Espinal said the videos “capture the realities of what is happening in inner-city neighborhoods like the ones I represent” — although he cautioned that the videos are “too raw” to be viewed by kids under 13.

Yikes, I guess Marty Golden is batting 1,000 when it comes to being out-of-touch of the needs of the people of Brooklyn. I just hope for his sake that this is the only bad press that he gets this election cycle.

(I got $10 on Senator Golden making another out-of-touch statement in the next week. Any Takers?)

Andrew Cuomo, Andrew Gounardes, Bay Ridge-Bensonhurst Beautification and Preservation Alliance, Celeste Katz, Colin Campbell, Gatemouth, Marty Golden, Pedro Espada, Rafael Espinal

Notoriously anti-gay State Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz is at it again. In a Spanish-written essay, he criticized co-habituating politicians; namely, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo.

From Politicker NY:

I, for my part, don’t want to offend anyone, but the Bible, the word of God; calls it fornication to live as husband and wife without having made this union a wedding officially blessed by God and man,” Senator Diaz wrote in remarks translated from the original Spanish.

For a Pentacostal minister, it seems Diaz forgets two important Bible passages: “Let he without sin cast the first stone” and the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14).

Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, Pentcostal, Politicker NY, Ruben Diaz

Now that New York State has approved full marriage equality, now more than ever, we have to show how we will always be committed to the plight of ensuring equal rights for all, across the natio. And Governor Andrew Cuomo agrees.

Tomorrow, Sunday, June 26th, Governor Andrew Cuomo will be marching in the the 41st Annual New York City Gay Pride Parade and would like you to join him. New York City’s annual Gay Pride Parade began in 1970 as a commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. The parade has since grown to become the oldest and one of the world’s largest LGBT events. For more information on the parade, visit: http://www.nycpride.org/. More details are below.

Meeting Time: 11AM
Location: 35th Street, between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue (please enter on Madison Avenues and walk east to on 5th Avenue, which will be closed off)
Dress: Neat, casual, warm weather clothes (polo shirt, khaki pants/shorts etc…)
Please RSVP to Ryan Naples

Andrew Cuomo, Gay Pride, LGBT, Marriage Equality, NYC Gay Pride Parade, Same-Sex Marriage

So, unless you have been living under a rock for the past day, you know that marriage equality has finally become a reality for the Empire State. No longer will two loving people be denied marriage licenses, hospital visitation rights, next-of-kin benefits, and thousands of other rights and freedoms that come with marriage. Since our inception as an organization, the Brooklyn Young Democrats have fought for marriage equality. And today we can say that our hard work has paid off.

By a 33 to 29, margin, the Republican controlled State Senate passed the Marriage Equality Act with Republican Senators James Alesi, Mark Grisanti, Roy McDonald, and Stephen Saland standing up for equal rights for all, regardless of who they love. The events of last night are proof that our leaders can come together and fight for the needs of the people of the State of New York. At the 2009 College Democrats of New York Convention, during a panel discussion with State Senators Eric Adams, Liz Krueger, and Diane Savino (famous for this video), I asked the panel if they believed that any of their colleagues on the Republican side would vote for marriage equality. They told me that they believed that there were some that wanted to vote for the measure, but, as Diane Savino said, they were “afraid” to come out for the rights of gays and lesbians. Last night was testimony to the courage of voting for what is right and it made true what those senators told me over 2 years ago.

However, we must realize that one state senator from Brooklyn does not believe in basic civil rights based on sexual orientation. That senator, of course, is Marty Golden. Senator Golden went so far last night to tweet “I do not feel that the religious protections in this bill were adequate.” The Marriage Equality Act, however, ensures that no religious institution is required to perform any same-sex marriages. Furthermore, the bill protects any religious organizations that does not condone same-sex marriage from threat of lawsuit for not providing their services for such marriages.

Brooklyn Senator Carl Kruger himself even admitted that he was wrong for voting against marriage equality last time around. If we can change the mind of just one of our senators, imagine how many minds we can change with the people of Brooklyn.

In case you did not catch the floor debate, as the videos come online, I will add them so you all can see democracy in action.

Stephen Salandsession remarks on Senate Bill 5857

Mark Grisanti (R-Buffalo) Speaking on the Marriage Equality Act

In case you want a laugh, here is Sen. Ruben Diaz having a temper tantrum

Andrew Cuomo, Carl Krueger, College Democrats, College Democrats of New York, Diane Savino, Eric Adams, Gay, James Alesi, Lesbian, Liz Krueger, Mark Grisanti, Marriage Equality, Marriage Equality Act, Marty Golden, New Yor State, Roy McDonald, Ruben Diaz, Same-Sex Marriage, State Senate, Stephen Saland

Transcript can be found Here.

Andrew Cuomo

Join President Bill Clinton & Andrew Cuomo, The next Governor of New York, as they rally Democrats to Get Out and Vote this Nov. 2nd!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010
New York City College of Technology Klitgord Center
285 Jay Street (by Tillary Street)
Brooklyn, NY
Doors Open at 3:00 pm

Subway Stops:
A/C/F Trains at Jay Street
2/3/4/5/M/R Trains at Borough Hall

RSVP: RSVP@nydems.org or 212-725-8825

You can find more details here

Andrew Cuomo, Bill Clinton