Cops Hassle Poll Site Activist For Talking DA Election, She Says

ASTORIA, QUEENS - An Astoria poll worker called the cops on an activist who was telling voters about the upcoming election for Queens district attorney, the activist told Patch.

Nina Luo, 24, was talking to voters outside P.S. 234 early Tuesday afternoon when a poll worker threatened to report her to police for electioneering, she said. Three NYPD officers arrived at the scene and asked Luo to move.

"They were harassing me and telling me to move, telling me, 'You can't be here,'" Luo, Court Watch coordinator for grassroots group VOCAL-NY, told Patch. "They were like, 'Do you really want to play this? We can make you move.'"

The police officers crossed the street and continued to watch Luo, she said, so she decided to leave. "Honestly, I was shaking so much, and I tried to be there as long as I could to make a point, but it didn't feel like it was worth it in the end," she told Patch.

An NYPD spokesperson said officers spoke to an individual by the Astoria school and determined that the individual was gathering signatures for an unrelated event.

Luo was one of about 25 Court Watch NYC members who stood outside Queens poll sites during the public advocate special election to inform voters about the election for Queens district attorney on June 25. Other grassroots organizations joining the canvassing effort included NAWS (Neighbors Against White Supremacy), the Rockaway Youth Task Force and the Queens chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.

"This is NOT electioneering bc we’re not canvassing for a specific candidate, you are suppressing civic engagement," Court Watch NYC tweeted.

Electioneering refers to soliciting votes or distributing, wearing or carrying political materials within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling site, according to the NYC Board of Elections.

Several other poll site activists advertising the district attorney race encountered issues. Two other Court Watch volunteers were accused of electioneering at the same Astoria polling site earlier Tuesday morning but no one called cops, according to Luo.

Andrea Colon, 18, said she was distributing flyers at P.S. 215 in Far Rockaway on Tuesday morning when a police officer told her she couldn't hand them out. Colon, an organizer for the Rockaway Youth Task Force, said the flyers described what a district attorney does and advertised a candidate forum.

"I'm not telling people to vote for somebody; I'm just educating people about the race," she said.

Court Watch NYC is a project to monitor courtroom proceedings across the city; member organizations include the social justice groups 5 Boro Defenders, VOCAL-NY and the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund.

Court Watch, NAWS, the Rockaway Youth Task Force and the Queens chapter of Democratic Socialists of America all belong to a larger coalition called Queens for DA Accountability.