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Who runs school district elections?

5/16/06

Monroe County has about 3,200 certified election inspectors. These are people who man the polling places and election booths during the general election but very few of them are at work for school elections. School elections are run under the supervision of each school district's clerk. Suburban and rural districts historically have used their own election workers. “Because of the fact that there are people who work the elections over and over again, elections tend to be run very smoothly. We're in a single location. A head inspector oversees this and has been doing this for years, and also does the Board of Elections under the direction of the district clerk. So there's a lot of training that’s involved,” said East Irondequoit Deputy Superintendent John Abbott.

Abbott is also a former employee of the county board of elections. He says voting machines are opened after polls close and the vote is tallied publicly. “The machines are opened in broad view of a number of people. There's people observing all day. So there's really no opportunity for fraud.”

Monroe County Election Commissioner Peter Quinn says the county board of elections provides the voting machines, voter lists, and technical expertise the day of the election. But the school elections themselves are under the auspices of New York State Education law. “Sometimes they are the same inspectors that we use for our general and primary elections. But they are not mandated to use the inspectors we use. The education law governs how they get their inspectors and what the qualifications for those are.”

Quinn says there's almost no possibility of tampering with the results of the election. “The equipment itself is pretty failsafe. They are sealed when they leave here from the Board of Elections. So as far as that goes, the equipment still continues to be a very safe procedure.”

Some voters NEWS 10NBC spoke with on Tuesday were unaware that school elections are not run by certified election inspectors and many say it isn't disconcerting to them at all. “Just because it's a privilege and we should take advantage of it, and more people should be out doing it. And I know on our street in particular, many people don't come out to vote,” said East Irondequoit voter Andrea Dayton.

You don't have to be a registered voter or a property owner to vote in school elections, just a resident of the district over age 18.