By:Joseph Kellard
With a long history of questionable absentee balloting practices in both its general and school elections, the Long Beach community faces a new electoral era with the passage of a state-wide bill addressing this problem.
The New York State Senate and Assembly unanimously passed a bill that will require boards of elections to provide for oversight of the voting process in adult care facilities with more than twenty-five absentee ballot applicants. This bill amends the provision of Section 8-407 of the Election Law into the Education Law.
Under this law partisan individuals acting as inspectors will deliver the ballots to the patients of the facilities and have a person-to-person discussion with them regarding the completion of the ballot, which the patients will complete on their own.
"This legislation is the culmination of a school board election being determined by absentee ballots that was really offensive in the way this system has been run," said New York State Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg.
In April, a meeting was held at the Long Beach Library by a state Senate committee on voting irregularities, which came in the wake of a grand jury ruling regarding the May 2000 Long Beach School Board election in which the use of absentee ballots in the city's adult home care facilities came under investigation. The investigation concluded that evidence of fraud did exist in last year's school board election, and while no indictments resulted from it, the grand jury did cite several outstanding issues including ballot distribution, collection and return along with serious charges of voter intimidation and manipulation. The investigation found that in certain instances, the patients were instructed to merely sign their name and then the ballot would be completed by an outside individual.
"After the testimony we heard at the Long Beach hearing, we know legislation had to be passed that called for oversight, not from political parities, but people from the board of elections from both parties being present from the Board of elections," Weisenberg said. "Not political leaders or political people that are directly involved in the election process."
About this new legislation, Superintendent of Long Beach Schools Dr. Ronald Friedman said, "We welcome any legislation that can help the functions of the electoral process."
Said community activist Sarah Nicholas, who along with 18 members of the Long Beach League of Women Voter's Absentee Ballot Community worked to get this legislation passed: "We are grateful to Dean Skelos and Harvey Weisenberg for sponsoring the bill. What makes this so great is that it amends both the general elections law and the education law."
"This is not a problem that existed only in Long Beach; it was statewide," Weisenberg said about the irregularities in the absentee balloting process. "However, the fact that it did occur in my area, I felt that I had responsibility to make sure this legislation was successful."
Currently, the bill is before Governor George Pataki. If he signs it, the legislation is expected to go into effect immediately.
