By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
A few weeks ago, local school districts were concerned about the availability of voting machines for school board and budget elections. Now, districts are facing thousands of dollars in added expenses to mail out absentee ballots to voters for the 2020-21 election, which is now slated for June 9.
New York state has canceled the special election for the NYS Senate’s 50th District, and village elections have been pushed to Sept. 15.
At the May 4 meeting of the Baldwinsville Central School District Board of Education, Assistant Superintendent of Management Jamie Rodems said the district has between 5,000 and 10,000 registered voters.
“We’re waiting on some guidance from [school attorney] Colleen Heinrich on how do we do outreach [to absentee voters],” Rodems said. “We don’t have voter rolls. We know who voted in the last election. We do have a list of all the students graduating who will be 18. We may end up having a very large response because everybody’s home, nobody’s working.”
In a typical year, the district spends about $4,000 on the May election. Between printing and postage costs, Rodems said the district is looking at spending two-and-a-half to three times that amount on distributing absentee ballots.
“It’s going to take two-and-a-half or three times as long,” Rodems said of counting the ballots, which will take a day or two.
While absentee voting will be costly, B’ville will not be hit as hard as some of its neighbors. The North Syracuse Central School District has 40,000 registered voters and will be spending $46,000 on postage, Rodems said.
New York state has modified some of its requirements regarding the vote. Districts will have to publish two legal notices about the vote instead of the usual four.
School board candidates will not have to collect signatures, but their nomination petitions are due May 11. Candidates will be listed on the ballot alphabetically.
Districts will send out postcards to registered voters with information about the June 9 budget vote, the June 2 budget hearing (which will take place via Zoom) and the definition of a qualified voter. Schools will also send out absentee ballots and postage paid return envelopes. Schools must receive completed absentee ballots by 5 p.m. June 9. Voters can return their completed ballots by mail or drop them off at the school district.
The BOE expects to vote on the 2020-21 budget May 18.