Archive: News

At the Board of Elections in the run up to the November 2008 election, the phones never stopped ringing, the mail was delivered and sent out by the boxful, and a steady stream of people lined up for their turn at the counter. Temporary staff and volunteers pitched in, and the regular staff worked overtime. A record number of voters, 4,230, requested absentee ballots, and on Election Day, a record number of voters turned out.

Now it’s 2009, and all is quiet at the BOE. Employees take naps and dream of 2012 while cobwebs form on the telephones and filing cabinets.

Not quite...

	This year Lansing voters will elect a County Legislator for the Town and one for the Village, two Town Councilpersons, and a Town Justice

True, the observable hectic activity has slowed to a more manageable pace, but the workload hasn’t really diminished, just shifted.

For one thing, about 70 local offices are up for election this year. These include County Legislators, City Alderpersons, Town and Village Supervisors, Councilpersons and Superintendents. This could mean over 140 candidates who need to correctly file petitions, financial disclosures and other legal documents. Plus the local parties will also file petitions and documents for their party positions. The staff at the BOE will spend a lot of time helping candidates and committees with the whole process.

In addition to the large number of races later in the year, the Board is also involved with many smaller elections. The Board runs Village elections, and provides various levels of support for a number of school board and fire district elections.


Meanwhile, certain tasks continue day in and day out, year after year. New voters register, current voters change their address or party affiliation. Databases need constant checking and updating. Reports are compiled and filed with the State. Voting machines receive periodic maintenance. Voter outreach is conducted at schools and clubs and community events. New procedures, laws, machines and software mean more staff training. Recruiting and training over 300 election poll workers each year is a never ending process.

Because of the uncertainties at the State and Federal level with the status of our HAVA mandated new voting system, at this writing we can’t even be sure whether we’ll be using the new optical scan/BMD machines, our old lever machines, or a combination this fall. Thus, we have to plan for all possible scenarios. And if we do roll out the new voting system, we will also need to undertake a massive training effort for our election workers, and conduct a public outreach program to educate all voters about the new system, all within an extremely narrow time frame.

So while one might imagine this year is a pleasant interlude for the Board, the reality is 2009 will be a very busy and extremely challenging year. Guess those naps will have to wait.


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