850 voters in NYC are officially 164 years old
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Elections workers check a machine during a tally in last year's election.Photo: Chad Rachman
A single Bronx voter listed in official records as being 164 years old led Board of Elections officials to review their files — where they turned up another 849 New Yorkers who were supposedly alive when Abe Lincoln was president.
The stunning discovery came after The Post reported last week that the birth date of Luz Pabellon, a spry 73-year-old who has been living and voting in The Bronx since the 1970s, was recorded as Jan. 1, 1850.
This week, a search of the records in all five boroughs found 849 more voters with the same wacky birth date.
Board officials chalked up the implausible age snafu to previous practices that allowed residents not to provide their exact birthdays when registering to vote.
Some of the new voters — mostly women — simply wrote that they were “21+” — above the legal voting age.
There was a reason to be vague. Voter registration records are open to the public, so anyone with the inclination can discover the real age of anyone in the files.
“It’s a leftover vestige from a bygone era,” explained Board of Elections executive director Mike Ryan.
“They were all listed as age 164. This was no accident. It’s a little quirk in the system. It’s not widespread,” he added, noting there are more than 4 million registered voters.
The board switched to computerized databases in 1999 and 2006.
‘IT’S A LEFT-OVER VESTIGE FROM A BYGONE ERA … THIS WAS NO ACCIDENT. IT’S A LITTLE QUIRK IN THE SYSTEM. IT’S NOT WIDESPREAD.’
- Mike RyanTo comply with state rules, election officials were required to write in a specific date of birth for all voters — or remove them from the rolls.
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