School board elections and budget vote pushed back three weeks due to pandemic

A new executive order from Governor Andrew Cuomo has pushed back the school board election and budget vote until June 9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, voters will not be able to able to cast their decisions at the ballot box like they usually do. Registered voters can only submit their votes via an absentee ballot, which will be mailed to them and include paid return postage.

The ballots will be mailed out on May 25. Additionally, those interested in submitting a board candidate petition can now do so until May 11 without the previously required 25 signatures.

“We will urge everyone to submit their ballots to the district,” Blind Brook Superintendent of Finance & Facilities Dr. Jonathan Ross said during the May 5 Board of Education meeting. “This is all going to be done by United States Postal Service delivery to your homes. Those ballot envelopes will not only have the ballot, but they will have a stamped, addressed envelope back to the district clerk at the school district office.”

Ross said the counting of the votes would be done by the district clerk and possibly the chief election inspector. However, they are still waiting on more guidance from the New York State Education Department.

“I would expect the vote count and results to be ready within 48 hours of the 5:00 p.m. deadline on June 9, 2020, depending on the final ballot count and assuming there are no unforeseen issues,” he said. “I say this based on my own opinion, and now knowing that there is no mandated timeframe that we must comply with.”

After the districts adopt their budgets, they will still make their spending plans available to the public and hold a remote public budget hearing.

The changes to the election have some questioning what voter turnout will look like, especially relating to passing the school budgets.

Blind Brook Board of Education member Jeff Diamond said typically voter turnout at the polls is between 600 to 1,200 voters. However, with over 4,000 registered voters receiving their ballot directly at home, there could be a much greater response.

“It’s going to be very easy to vote without an effort of going to the polls,” he said.

However, Port Chester Board of Education President Tom Corbia said he is wary that a higher voter turnout and added anxiety could lead to the budget failing.

“There is a lot of internal stress—financial and emotional (amongst voters). It’s mixed,” said Corbia. “Obviously, we want to fund next year’s school [budget] as best we can, and if we have to go back to the drawing board and make cuts, then we are going to have to do it.”

“No one gets hurt in an election,” he added. “You’re just not on the board anymore, but if there is a budget that goes down and people have to lose their jobs, that’s a different animal.”