Long Beach residents to rally for reopening of West Elementary School polling place

Residents of Long Beach’s West End are planning a rally Monday to call for the restoration of a polling place outside West Elementary School on Maryland Avenue in Long Beach.

The rally, which is to begin at 5:30 p.m., will call on the Nassau County Board of Elections to reopen the school to voters during the Nov. 5 election, said Jerry Romanoff, a member of the West End Neighbors Civic Association.

Long Beach normally has six polling places in citywide elections, but superstorm Sandy closed West Elementary, which had been a polling place for years. The rebuilt school welcomed back students in September.

West End residents voted a mile away, at Lindell Elementary, in this year's primary, and are scheduled to do so again in November.

An attorney for Republican elections commissioner Louis Savinetti has said West Elementary should be reopened for the election. But William Biamonte, Nassau's Democratic elections commissioner, has said he does not support the change because it would alter polling places between a primary and a general election.

Both commissioners would have to approve any changes.