Over the past couple weeks, Genesee County school districts -- like others throughout the state -- have been gearing up for Tuesday’s counting of paper ballots that will determine the outcome of 2020-21 budgets, propositions and board of education elections.
Now, per an executive order signed on Sunday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it looks as though they’ll have to wait a bit longer.
The legislation extends the deadline for submitting school budget absentee ballots by mail through June 16, while retaining the requirement that ballots can be delivered by hand to school offices through 5 p.m. tomorrow.
“Obviously, it will delay our process by a week,” said Scott Rozanski, Batavia City School District business administrator. “Tentatively, we will begin to count on June 16 once mail is received.”
Rozanski said he has yet to receive specific guidance on the legislation, which also extends the deadline to submit absentee ballots for the Primary Election until June 23 -- the day of the election.
In a press release, Cuomo said “the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world, and while we are making great progress and the numbers keep going down, no New Yorker should have to choose between their health and their right to vote.”
Robert Schneider, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, said, in a press release, the delay muddles the school budget process even further.
“The executive order will likely cause confusion among voters in districts that did not face supply chain issues, thereby adding to what has been an extremely frustrating, costly and cumbersome board election and school budget vote process,” Schneider said.
Rozanski and John Fisgus, Oakfield-Alabama Central School superintendent, said they are ready to count their district’s ballots, and both are reporting a significant increase in voter participation.
“We received over 300 ballots a day for the first four days (since May 29) and now they're coming in at around 150 per day,” Rozanski said. “This will be the highest number of votes since I arrived in 2003. We have already exceeded the highest number, which was in 2012-13.”
Last year, about 550 votes were cast in Batavia.
At Oakfield-Alabama, Fisgus said that more than 700 ballots had been received as of last Friday – more than three times the number of voters in 2019.
As far as counting the ballots is concerned, both districts have their teams in place and will be forming an “assembly line” with different people assigned to specific tasks – opening the envelopes, distributing the ballots and counting the votes separately for the budget, other propositions and school board election.
They also said that guidelines are in place to ensure voter anonymity since the outside of the envelopes have to be signed in order to be considered.
“(Starting at 5 p.m. on June 16) we will open the envelopes but the ballots will remain folded as not to see the information checked as it must remain anonymous and separated from the envelope,” Fisgus said.
He said the ballots will be placed in a secure lock box, and the two teams counting the ballots will be charged with tallying the budget votes, capital project vote, bus purchase and board member votes.
“Once all the legal ballots have been counted, the teams will come together for a final tally of the propositions and board candidates,” said.
Rozanski said the Batavia district is using a local vendor to assist in the process.
“We have partnered with ABS (Applied Business Systems) to have the mailed ballots delivered to them using their Business Reply Mail permit,” he said. “Each day we receive notification of the ballots received and an employee picks up the mail. In addition, ballots could still be dropped off at the Administrative wing at Batavia High School (by 5 p.m. tomorrow).”
To be eligible to vote, persons must be a U.S. citizen, 18 years of age or older, and be a resident of the school district for at least 30 days prior to June 9 – all in accordance with the provisions of section 5-106 of the Election Law.
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Reigle to Run for Batavia Spot
The Batavia City School District has another candidate for the school board as John Reigle has thrown his hat into the ring as a write-in.
He joins incumbents Tanni Bromley and Barbara Bowman as well as recent appointee Alice Ann Benedict in the race for the three open board seats.
The two candidates receiving the most votes will serve from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2023, while the third-place candidate’s term will be June 9, 2020 through June 30, 2021.
