Board of Elections

Voting in Genesee County — two primaries this summer, plus future races for governor and president — has become more of a problem for the Board of Elections, Dick Siebert says.

Not only have workers been more scarce, but voters don’t seem to be filling the extra voting days required by the state.

“We've had two primaries, which we didn't anticipate. We had the June primary. And then we had the August primary. The turnout was extremely bad. And what we've talked about before, that's always concerning to us,” Siebert, the Republican Party representative as Board of Elections commissioner, said during Wednesday’s Ways & Means meeting. “And it disturbs both of us that there's always talk about extending early voting. Like Lorie and I have always said in other counties … we don't need more than nine days, it's more than sufficient. When you're running, you know, 10 voters a day for how many hours? It's disturbing because there's an expense to it. But we have no control over it. It is what it is. It is what we have to live with.”

The June Primary had a Democratic turnout of 12 percent, or 1,072 votes, with the Republican turnout at 17 percent, or 2,892 votes, he said. August's Primary tallied 2,358 votes for 14 percent of the eligible Republican voters. That pales to the 17,000 registered Republicans and 9,000 registered Democrats that could cast a vote. 

With the upcoming local, state and national elections, it is destined “to be a busy year for us,” he said. And given that “workers are walking away from us,” it has been an ongoing challenge to shore up staffing gaps.

Board of Elections staff has been discussing ways to entice workers — breaking up a day into shifts to avoid the long hours of 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and promoting the job as a way to earn extra holiday money, he and the Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner Lorie Longhany said.

“We recruited eight people from those efforts,” she said. “It seems like a post-COVID phenomenon; we have people commit, and then they call and uncommit, or they don’t show up, which is a real hardship on us.”

Both major parties have been working to get the word out, they said, about the need for elections staff. Legislators asked questions about the criteria for employment. Anyone 17 and older who is a Genesee County resident and pre-registered for one of the two parties of Republican or Democrat may be qualified for the job. They just need to keep focused on the task at hand, Longhany said.

“We can’t have people disrupting a poll site. It’s not politics; it’s about a fair election,” she said, as Seibert added that “everyone that wants to vote gets a vote.”

How does the county update its list of voters? Staff monitors the list and removes those who notify the board office that they have moved, and they also review a “move list,” Longhany said. Much of that is dependent on the voter, who has responsibility for notifying the board office and registering in the new county of residence, she said. As for people who have died, “every single morning, staff go through the obituaries,” she said.

“People in this county are very fortunate; it’s very well run,” Legislator Marianne Clattenburg said.

Seibert recommended that Longhany, who lives in Le Roy, be appointed as commissioner again next year. Her term, if approved by the whole Legislature, will run from Jan. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2026.

Committee members voted to forward the proposal.

Photo: Dick Siebert, Republican representative as Board of Elections commissioner, gives county legislators a department review, and recommends Lorie Longhany, Democratic representative as board commissioner, for the next three-year term.  Photo by Joanne Beck.

Press release:

The Genesee County Board of Elections is looking for poll workers, table inspectors, and coordinators for the November 8th General Election and Early Voting beginning October 29th.  The positions pay commensurate per diem rates. There is a paid training, which takes place on several dates in late summer – dates to be announced.  Candidates will have a year-to-year appointment and must complete the training annually.

If you are civic-minded and interested in serving your community and earning extra money, please call 585 815-7804. Per NY State election law, we can only accept enrolled voters from the two major parties – Republican and Democrat. The Board of Elections works with equal teams of bi-partisan employees.

Must have transportation.

A concerned resident reached out to The Batavian with a report that the Genesee County Board of Elections did not have her as a registered voter in the county after she had allegedly filled out a new voter registration form at the DMV.

She reported that she was still registered in Monroe County after moving from Rochester to Batavia in July and registering at the DMV.  

Republican Election Commissioner Dick Siebert said the DMV discrepancy has been an issue of concern for the past few years.

Siebert said “Our main purpose is that everyone who claims that they registered through the DMV has an opportunity to vote that night, and what we do is provide them an affidavit ballot so that they're not turned away just because we say we can't find a registration for you...They can cast an affidavit ballot, which is the same ballot that everyone else gets, and then we have to sort it out later, each case by itself as to what happened -- why they're are not showing up registered with us.”

Siebert added that their main focus is first making sure everyone has the chance to vote and, second, ensuring that there is no voter fraud.

Genesee County's six village's could face a substantial expense if they want to use the Board of Election's modern voting machines, Election Commissioner Richard Siebert told the Ways and Means Committee this afternoon.

The exact cost per village hasn't been determined yet, but it starts with more than 56 cents per ballot to feed into the machines and includes staff support and security.

Only certified staff can supervise the machines in order to ensure there is no tampering, Siebert said.

While school districts can continue to use the old lever machines through the 2012 elections, villages and fire districts are prohibited from allowing voters to pull on the old levers from now on.

The Board of Elections will bring forward a resolution to the Legislature to declare the lever machines surplus property, at which point they can be donated to school districts, if they want them.

For villages and fire districts, they have two choices: shoulder the costs of using the new election computers or use paper ballots.

Legislator Bob Bausch said that Bergen will use paper ballots for its next election.