NEW YORK — The city has long been home to the privileged and the destitute, but voters from all walks of life felt disenfranchised after a city-wide snafu at primary voting locations on Tuesday.

According to the New York Times, 71 polling locations opened late due to missing or malfunctioning machines. With polls scheduled to open at 6 a.m., some voters experienced a delay of up to 4 hours.

Other voters received an error message when scanning their ballots and left in disgust, unsure whether their votes would be counted.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, upon receiving complaints at City Hall, referred to the situation as a "royal screw-up" by the Board of Elections.

The state’s new optical scanning machines — similar to those already in use in Boston — require voters to fill in paper ballots, which are then scanned electronically.

Voters reported hard-to-read print and a lack of privacy when workers assisted with feeding ballots through machines. The new system is a departure from the lever-machine voting system used for the past half century.

“I think there are going to be people who are going to lose their votes,” Anne Koenig told the Wall Street Journal, after she was instructed to place her paper ballot in an emergency voting box to be counted later by poll workers.

The new system is already the subject of a lawsuit filed by NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice on behalf of the NAACP, Working Families Party, and other groups. The suit alleges that disproportionate numbers of minority voters will be subject to misreading the machine’s over-voting instructions, meaning their votes will be invalidated.

While a number of the primary elections on Tuesday were won by a wide margin—such as Rep. Charles Rangel’s renomination in Harlem—others were a closer call. Senatorial candidate Joseph DioGuardi clinched the Republican nomination by earning 4 points more than David Malpass. The Democratic state attorney general race was even tighter, with nominee Eric Schneiderman eking out 3 points over Kathleen Rice.

Such tight results call into question the number of ballots that may have been misread by the new machines, or the percentage of voters who were unable to vote due to late poll openings.

State Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez said, “We will apply all lessons learned from today’s primary election to November’s general election.”

With higher turnout, and higher stakes, due in November, voter disenfranchisement may become a key election issue over the next two months.

State officials, high school students and advocates for new voting laws in Massachusetts urged the state Election Laws Committee to consider a bill that would change the landscape of voter registration for teenagers under the age of 18, yesterday at the State House.

As part of the Massachusetts Freedom to Vote Act, the proposed measure would allow a 16 1/2-year-old to pre-register to vote when they apply for a driving permit at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, so that when they turn 18, their registration will automatically kick in.

“This is an easy, no cost, common sense bill” said State Rep. Ellen Story (D-Amherst), at a press conference before the hearing this week.

Story, who is lead sponsor for the bill, said she has had this proposal on her desk for a couple of years, and believes this is the right time to get it passed.

“The legislature is looking for things to do between now and Nov. 18, when we recess, that are good government bills and that don’t cost money” Story said after her testimony to the Committee. “This doesn’t cost anything.”

Story said a person under the age of 18 should have the opportunity to pre-register, because young people at that age are starting to form their own opinions, and she said voting at a young age would lead to a lifetime of responsible voters.

“Voting is addictive” said Story, who said the bill did not make it far last year but has heard no opposition from anyone. “If you start voting, you will never stop.”

In a study by Common Cause, the government watchdog found that only 50 percent of 18-year-olds are registered to vote in the US, and in the 2008 elections only 59 percent of eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 were registered to vote.

The bill has already been implemented in 10 states around the country, including Connecticut and Maine.

The new bill would not change the voting age to 16, since 18 is the legal age to vote as stated in the US Constitution, but the bill might make it easier for 18-year-olds to vote.

“I’m a junior, and if I could just register to vote now it would make things that much easier because things are going to be hectic with college,” said said Donovan Birch, a junior at Boston Preparatory Charter Public School, who testified to the committee. “The first half of my year will be applying to college, then getting ready for it, then I have to fulfill all my requirement for my senior year.”

Birch, a member of Young Civic Leaders, a program sponsored by MassVote, a voters’ rights organization, designed to build leaders in the community, said this new bill would make it easier because senior year of high school can be a very busy time.

“Even though I’ll be 18, registering to vote isn’t going to be the first thing on my mind.”

Rep. Michael J. Moran, chair of the Election Laws Committee, was impressed by Birch’s testimony.

“We need more kids like you getting active” said Moran, who jokingly told the group of 10 to 15 high school students that he tried to get them a half-day of school. “I know it can be very boring, but very important stuff goes on in here, and I appreciate you all coming.”

Avi Green, executive director of MassVote, said it was important for the high school students to voice their opinion to the Committee.

“It’s critical” said Green, who, along with MassVote, sponsored the press conference before the hearing. “Everyone’s always saying “ËœThis is good for high school students or that is good for high school students or this is good for youth’ but I think youth can speak for themselves.

“I think Donovan was just as impressive as the adults that I heard, and I really hope that bill passes.”

Green is also an advocate for the other major proposed bills in The Mass Freedom to Vote Act. Including, Election Day registration, which would allow voters to register on the day of elections providing they have proof of residence and ID, and early voting, which would give voters a week in advance to vote in case they were not available on Election Day.

No vote was made on the bill, and Green said he hoped the Committee to act sooner rather than later.

Tina Fey just sticks to your mind, doesn’t she? Talented, beautiful, and politically motivating?

A recent survey shows, not necessarily surprisingly, that 10 percent of voters went to the polls Tuesday with the recent political parodies from Saturday Night Live on their minds.

A national survey released today by Roll Call, Strat@comm and Fleishman-Hillard Public Affairs also shows that two-thirds of voters viewed the SNL’s political parodies this election season.

“The ‘SNL effect’ absolutely impacted the election,” said Mike Dabadie, a FirstView researcher. “We saw that 10 percent of voters said they were influenced by the skits. At the same time, the data shows that 59 percent of those who saw the skits voted for Obama and 39 percent voted for McCain.”

The survey also found that 6 percent of respondents indicated the skits made them more likely to vote for Obama/Biden and 4 percent said the SNL skits made them more likely to vote for McCain/Palin.

The survey also shows that while voters listed the economy as a top concern, the biggest motivating factor — what drove them to vote — was the desire to restore trust in the government for future generations.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent

SHARON, Mass. — I voted today, and so should you.

It was busy in the little town of Sharon, 25 miles south of Boston and 25 miles north of Providence. Everyone in town voted at the high school, adding to the parking and crowding fun.

It’s best to escape from work early or to try to go at an off peak time. It was still busy, but I got right in and out with no delay.

But I didn’t get an “I voted today” sticker. Bummer. Also, no exit polling was being done around noon time here in Sharon.

Massachusetts has three big ballot questions to consider. Question 1 eliminates the state income tax. Question 2 decriminalizes under an ounce of marijuana and replaces criminal penalties with a civil fine, and Question 3 would make dog racing illegal in the state.