Suffolk finds short-term fix for voters casting ballots in upcoming school, fire and village elections

Most voters casting ballots for upcoming school budget votes and village elections in Suffolk County can do so on familiar voting machines local governing bodies have acquired from the Suffolk County Board of Elections. 

A temporary fix between the BOE and most of the county’s school districts — as well as some villages, fire and library districts — will allow elections to run as normal after the BOE agreed to extend its support of its aging voting machines given to districts and villages.

School officials and municipality leaders had warned of unexpected costs and uncertainty of how to hold elections after the BOE alerted them in an October memo it would no longer provide voting machines beginning Jan. 1. The BOE will begin using new touch screen voting machines this year.

The agreement allows for villages holding March elections and school districts hosting May budget votes to proceed close to normal before they go back to the drawing board to decide how to conduct future elections. Some smaller school districts and villages have already decided to use paper ballots going forward, officials said.

Villages and school districts are responsible for their elections but have relied on the BOE to lease machines and technical support.

The BOE had offered about 425 of its former Dominion ImageCast Evolution voting machines to districts for free. Districts and villages have claimed about 334 of them, according to John Alberts, the BOE's Democratic commissioner.

The BOE will begin using its new voting machines, made by Election Systems & Software, in June primaries. Suffolk lawmakers last year allocated nearly $35 million to the BOE to purchase them.

The BOE commissioners originally gave districts a Nov. 15 deadline to request machines and said any leftovers would be offered for sale to other counties. The BOE, however, has not sold any "in order to leave them available to the Suffolk districts," Alberts said.

Districts requested anywhere from one to 19 machines, he said in an email. The BOE has distributed machines to 71 districts and villages as of Wednesday. That figures includes 50 of the 69 Suffolk school districts, according to the BOE.

School contract

When school districts were informed of the BOE's policy change, officials at Eastern Suffolk BOCES, the Nassau-Suffolk Schools Boards Association and Suffolk County School Superintendents Association began discussions with the BOE to find a viable solution that would not burden individual districts with unexpected costs.

David Wicks, chief operating officer of Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, said school districts have depended on BOE machines to run elections and were "taken aback" when first notified of the change.

Wicks said the BOE agreed to extend its current contract with the machine’s vendor until June if the districts could recoup the cost. He said that vendor cost was a "nominal fee" of around $20,000.

He said the BOE signed an agreement with BOCES rather than separate contracts with each individual district.

"We were just able to absorb the cost of that extension as a service to the county," he said.

Some smaller districts opted against acquiring machines and will use paper ballots.

Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, which advocates on behalf of Long Island public schools, credited the BOE for working with school districts to minimize any fallout.

The BOE agreed to provide support, from training people to use the machines to how to read them, he said.

Vecchio said voters at the polls in May should not notice any difference in the voting process.

He said following May’s budget votes, the organization will continue discussions with the BOE to find a long-term solution. Districts will have to enter into their own contract with the vendor, buy different machines, move to paper ballots or find another solution.

"This was a temporary solution for this year," Vecchio said.

Village elections

Separately from school districts, village mayors late last year began discussions with the BOE to find a solution.

The BOE agreed to extend its support for some of the villages that will hold March elections. But other villages holding elections in June were on their own, so the benefit of taking machines didn't seem as strong, according to Village of Brightwaters Mayor John Valdini, president of the Suffolk County Village Officials Association.

After those March elections, "they're on their own," he said.

He said his village, which holds elections in June, ultimately decided against using the machines and will switch to paper ballots.

"It’s not worth the trouble bringing in people to set them up and deal with it," he said.

Patchogue Village secured four machines ahead of its March election, fewer than the village would typically use, Mayor Paul Pontieri said. The village will cut the number of polling stations from as many as five to two: at Village Hall and its recreational center.

He said the village was required to keep machines it acquired on municipal property. So the village’s four machines are crammed around an employee’s office desk at Village Hall.

Pontieri said he was still frustrated at how the process played out and the short timing villages were given to adapt. He said the village was scrambling to answer questions like how to operate the machine and who can maintain them.

"We're a month and a half out and we're looking into that now," he said. "It would have been nice if we knew a year ago when we were doing the budget."

North Haven, a residential East End village north of Sag Harbor that holds June elections, originally requested a machine before deciding to withdraw, according to Mayor Chris Fiore.

He said in an email the "care and maintenance" required of the machines made it "impractical" for the small village.

Library districts

Huntington Public Library received two voting machines that it will use for its April 14 budget vote, according to Director Jose-Rodrigo Hernandez. He said the BOE will provide technical support for that vote, after which the library will be "exploring some options" of how to proceed.

He said the library could switch to paper ballots, but no decision was set.

The library took possession of the machines in late December. He said they were fortunate to have space to store them and a driver who could pick them up at the BOE in Yaphank.

"Not every library has that," he said in an interview.

Several fire districts were included in the BOE’s list, including the West Babylon Fire District. John Manzi Sr., a district commissioner, said the district opted to take three metal privacy booths rather than any voting machines. Most fire district elections are toward the end of the year.

He said the cost for a maintenance contract was "prohibitive."

By Joe Werkmeister

joe.werkmeister@newsday.com

Joe Werkmeister joined Newsday in 2022 and covers Suffolk County government and politics. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.

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