Senators Urge Cuomo To Change School Ballot Deadline

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Twenty-seven New York State senators signed a letter urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to allow school budget vote ballots to be postmarked by the day of the election, due to widespread complications in getting the absentee ballots printed and mailed to voters.

Due to the new coronavirus outbreak, Cuomo pushed the school budget election to June 9 and mandated that all eligible voters receive an absentee ballot in the mail from their school district, which had to be returned by Tuesday, June 9 in order to be counted.

Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Democrat who represents the 37th Senate District, said, in the letter dated June 3, that the senators believed the change would "address the process issues encountered and allow for greater voter participation to be accomplished."

She said in some districts vendors could not meet the scheduled delivery date to mail out ballots in time for voters to fill them out and get them mailed back to the districts.

Mayer also pointed out that there were currently serious delivery issues with the U.S. Postal Service, due to the virus-related job shortages and structural issues.

"We should not disenfranchise voters because of problems with the mail," the letter said. "As long as the ballot is postmarked, we know voters took the opportunity to vote, and that should be honored. Election law allows ballots postmarked by the day of the election to be valid."

In a telephone interview with Patch, Mayer said the request was a simple modification to say that the postmark is adequate as opposed to delivery.

"What we don't want is the day after to receive more ballots," she said, which could prompt lawsuits.

"We want to give the people the opportunity to vote," Mayer said.

Sen. Pete Harckham, a Democrat representing the 40th District, introduced legislation earlier in the week to extend the deadline for school district and library elections across the state to June 16.

Mayer said the Senate is out of session until next week, and she didn't see how it would be possible to consider, much less pass, the legislation.

While decisions, if any, are being made, school districts are doing what they can to make it easier on their voters. Some are adding more locations where ballots can be dropped off, such as in New Rochelle.

Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo said Thursday that, while hoping the governor would extend the election deadline, additional lockboxes will be available beginning Friday where voters can safely leave their filled-out ballots. Previously, the drop-off location was at New Rochelle City Hall, where the district offices are.

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