Levittown School Board Approves Consolidation of Polling Places, Increase in Voting Hours

The Levittown School Board voted unanimously to consolidate their eight polling places into four and to increase voting hours at Wednesday's regular meeting, the first since the official start of the 2011-12 school year.

Polling places at Lee Road Elementary School, Salk Middle School and Gardiners Avenue Elementary will be consolidated into one polling place at Gardiners. The Levittown Memorial Education Center will remain open and absorb voters who previously voted at Wisdom Lane Middle School, while Division Avenue High School will take voters from Division and Northside Elementary School. Voters who vote at East Broadway Elementary School will continue to vote there without the polling place taking on any additional schools.

Voting hours were moved from noon-9 p.m. to 7 a.m.-8 p.m. in order to better accomodate voters who were unable to vote during the later times of day.

The change in polling hours was discussed more in-depth at the board's previous planning session on August 24. At that meeting, district clerk Elizabeth Applebaum informed the board that the extended hours would cost the district more than it did last year because the polling places would not be able to use student volunteers during the new hours (as they will take place during the school day). Trustee Ed Powers pointed out, however, that the cost will still be cheaper than it was two years ago as students will be able to volunteer once the school day ends.

The change will only effect school elections, such as bond votes and budget votes, for now. Applebaum said at the Sept. 14 meeting that she placed several calls to the Nassau County Board of Elections to attempt to consolidate polling places and change voting hours for County elections, but those calls have gone unreturned. A petition process with the Board of Elections may take up to a year according to Levittown Superintendent Dr. James Grossane.

The changes in polling places and voting times are expected to go into effect in May of 2012.