Casting the Ballot: Scarsdale Polls See Sluggish Turnout in Today's Election

By 6 p.m., Scarsdale's Districts 6 and 7 had only seen approximately 100 out of 500 registered voters per polling place swing by Village Hall to cast their vote in today's election for County Legislator, State Supreme Court judge, District 9 and Town Justice. 

"That's not really a whole lot of voters, although I've seen less turnout than this before," commented Village Clerk Donna Conkling. 

"It's hard to say how many voters there'll be because right now is when bulk of voting occurs -- when people come off the train -- so usually between 6 and 9 p.m. is when we get our heaviest voter turnout," Conkling continued. "How heavy turnout's going to be, we don't know. From what I've observed, it's not been extremely busy by any means. I'd wait to see what happens after dinner because in my experience, that's when the heaviest number of votes comes in." 

Conkling said that locally, 65-70 percent of registered voters appeared at polling places during presidential elections. However, she added, primaries and general elections generally yield a very low turnout.  

"In this type of general election where there's not too much going on, you can expect between between 20 to 30 percent of voters to show up," Conkling said. "This is not unusual. I've seen less than this." 

Some residents did not intend on voting, and noted that their neighbors seemed to share similar sentiments.

"It's really empty in there," said Annette Hames as she stood in the Scarsdale Public Library's parking lot and gestured toward the Scott Room -- the polling place where voters in Districts 5, 11 and 12 were supposed to arrive and cast their ballots. 

But several Scarsdale residents said that they didn't use the ballot's limited choices as an excuse to shirk their civic duty.

"It's always important to vote," said Sal Rao, who showed up at at Village Hall's polling place around 5 p.m.  

"You should vote every time there's an election. Even if it seems small, it's really important," said Greenacres resident Arlene Meister. 

Some Scarsdale residents voted, but said they were not particularly personally invested in any candidate or platform issue.

"Unfortunately, I really don't know too much about the different candidates who are running," said Michael, a voter who refrained from revealing his last name to Scarsdale Patch. "I'm pretty apathetic. I don't even know who's on the ballot, which is kind of sad. But my wife and I are going to go to our polling place and we'll see if we recognize the names and if we've heard of any of the candidates. Then, we'll decide who we're going to vote for."

"We're not necessarily voting on party lines," Michael continued. "We're not voting the way we should be. When we know what's going on and who the different candidates are, we really do vote and take an interest in things. But here in Scarsdale we also have the Non-Partisan Committee. Unless we have write-in ballots or something, there's not a huge turnout."

Referencing last year's contested race for mayor, Michael told Scarsdale Patch that write-in ballots drove residents to polls and "shake things up a lot."

"But as far as getting others to vote against the nominated people, it doesn't happen very often," Michael said. "Scarsdale doesn't like to have trouble inside the bubble."

Those who were personally invested in today's contested race between Republican Dr. Iris Pagan and Democrat William J. Ryan for County Legislator said that taxes and budget issues were a salient concern.

"In terms of this local election, I am disturbed that everything seems to be about cutting budgets instead of making sensible decisions about what we actually need to move forward in terms of stimulating the economy," said Phyllis Perkins, a Fox Meadow resident. "I don't think that our legislators, both locally and in Congress, understand that we do have a role for government. It's not just about cutting budgets. It should be efficient, but it also needs to push progress and stimulate the economy." 

"I don't think we can streamline our budget too much," added Meister. "It probably can be streamlined. But you can't just cut out everything. What's going to happen? The teachers will be fired, and we don't want to do that in our school. Our Village is quite well run. Whoever lives here can afford their taxes for the most part. "  

As of 8 p.m., 18 readers had participated in Scarsdale Patch's County Legislator Poll. 12 poll participants had selected Pagan as their choice candidate, whereas 6 had vied for Ryan. To find out who's ahead in tonight's race, keep checking back with Scarsdale Patch for the latest election details.