COUNCIL TO HEAR VOTING PROBLEMS

by dan rivoli

council member gale brewer will lead a hearing oct. 4 at 10 a.m. on the problems voters had with the new machines during the sept. 14 primary.

upper west siders and voters throughout the city reported that the new optical scanning machines were malfunctioning and polling places were opening late.

that prompted mayor michael bloomberg to call the situation a "royal screw-up."

on primary day, brewer, who chairs the government operations committee that oversees the board of elections, promised hearings on the problems.

"we have, citywide, pages and pages of complaints," brewer said. "the point of the hearing is to prevent these challenges and problems on nov. 2 [the general election]."