Ford questions late absentee ballot mailings

Denise Ford suspected something was fishy when her son Gerard, a student at the University of Scranton, received his absentee ballot on Election Day.

Ford, a Nassau county legislator from Long Beach, knew her son had submitted his application on time because he had received political mailings at his school. But by law, voters must have their absentee ballots postmarked no later than the day before Election Day and received seven days later.

“He was not given the right to vote, so I’m upset,” Ford said.

Ford, who on Election Day received 13,336 votes in an uncontested election that gave her a third term in the Legislature, later learned that the Nassau County Board of Elections mailed the absentee ballots out two weeks behind schedule. Ford said she called the board to find out the cause of the delay, but received no answer. She now plans to register her complaint with the state Board of Elections.

“This goes to the heart of the matter because I’m very concerned with the people’s right to vote and that there be no impedance to it,” she said. “No matter what, they cannot delay it. My question is, Why was it delayed? and then [we need] to make sure that it doesn’t happen in future years.”

Don Steinert, assistant to Republican county election Commissioner John DeGrace, said that the delay was due to the Tax Revolt line, an extra party line that Ed Mangano, the Republican candidate for county executive, wanted to add to the ballot.

“The Tax Revolt line held up the ballots because the Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on where that line should go on the ballot,” Steinert explained. “The problem is we can’t send the absentees out until we know what the ballot is going to look like, and many times these are hung up in court to determine how the ballot is going to read.”