The state Legislature on Wednesday passed legislation proposed by state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) and state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) that would extend the use of lever-voting machines for village, school board and special district elections throughout the state until Dec. 31, 2015.
The bill also requires the state Board of Elections to conduct a review of village, school, library and special district elections and to propose new ways to conduct municipal elections in the future.
Officials from the board of elections will be required to sit down with the “state Department of Education, the New York School Boards Association, the New York Conference of Mayors and the state association of counties” during their review process, according to the bill.
At press time, the bill had not signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Without the extension, municipalities would be forced to use paper ballots or electronic voting machines for elections after Dec. 31, 2014, according to a joint press release from Schimel and Martins.
Approval of the legislation is the third time in four years the state has extended the use of lever voting machines for special district elections. The other two bills, passed in 2011 and 2012, were also proposed by Schimel and Martins.
Schimel and Martins said in their press release that the use of electronic voting machines or paper ballots would put a financial strain on local municipalities.
“Allowing schools, villages and special districts to continue to use lever-style voting machines will help them save money and conduct elections with fair and accurate outcomes,” Martins said. “These are non-partisan elections with small voter turnouts; they are completely different from a regular general election and need to be treated that way.”
Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said it costs villages “under $300” to rent the lever voting machines. Kreitzman said he could not say how much it would cost to rent electronic voting machines because “Nassau County hasn’t committed to making the machines available.”
Kreitzman, the head of the Great Neck Village Officials Association, said “it’s our hope that [Cuomo] signs the bill.
Village officials have complained about the cost of electronic voting machines, which they said requires municipalities to purchase 10 percent more ballots than registered voters at a cost of 50 cents a ballot – even though only a small percentage of the voters usually goes to the polls.
Schimel said in an interview with Blank Slate Media that the bill “was one of the more difficult bills to get through.”
She said she had to convince state lawmakers whose districts do not have municipal elections to vote for the law.
“I spent a whole day pulling members off the assembly floor and telling them how important this bill was,” Schimel said. “The hard part was to get them to walk in our shoes.”
She credited members of the New York Conference of Mayors and state school board association officials for working with her to have the bill passed.
Schimel said it would cost taxpayers $81 million to implement electronic voting machines statewide for municipal elections.
“Where are we going to get the money for that?” she asked. “How are you going to do that when we have a cap?”
Warren Tackenberg, executive director of the Nassau County Village Officials Association, said there are about 209 elections throughout Nassau County every year.
Tackenberg said the association met with Schimel earlier this year and “indicated that our concern was that we would not be able to have elections without the lever machines.”
“We’re very pleased with the passing of the bill and we hope the governor signs it soon,” he said.
