Heavy-handed voter closes poll machine

An unidentified woman casts her vote Tuesday at Brentwood's Oak Park Elementary School. (May 18, 2010) Photo by James Carbone.

A voting machine at Polk Street School in Franklin Square was down for about an hour this morning after a man complained he wasn’t able to vote “no” on the proposed budget.

Franklin Square Union Free School District Voting Coordinator Amy Pinello said the district didn’t allow the machine to be used between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. She said the company that leases the machine to the district reviewed the poll for technical defaults and found nothing wrong.

Pinello said the man pushed down too hard on the lever and it bounced back up.

The district is proposing a 2.18 percent increase over the current 2009-2010 budget. That comes with a 3.9 percent tax levy increase.

No other complaints were lodged about the machine.