By Doug Miller
Just about everyone in town has an equal chance of winning a five-year term on the Long Beach Library board, as Trustee Ruth Burian announced she would not seek re-election, and nobody filed a completed candidacy petition to run for the seat by last Friday's deadline.
"Well, it's kind of exciting," said Estelle Sealine, former president of the Long Beach League of Women Voters. "We've never had this happen before."
The result will be a completely open election in which voters will be asked to write in their candidates, and whoever gets the most votes will win. Neatness counts, since election workers will likely have to read through more than 1,000 ballots. Pens or pencils may be provided at the district's seven polling places, but bringing your own can't hurt.
In theory, a write-in candidate can win any election, but the vast majority of voters choose a candidate backed by a political party, whether Democrat, Republican or one of the many "third" parties who hold lines in New York state. Library board and school board candidates do not run on political party lines, but anyone who collects 100 signatures gets his or her name on the official ballot. Every election is designed to allow the voter to write in a candidate, offering blank paper ballots.
"Maybe some people will come out of the woodwork now, saying write in for me, vote for me," said Sealine.
Eileen Lilly, the clerk of the Long Beach City School District and the woman who will run the May 17 election, said this scenario had never occurred in her seven years in Long Beach, and added that she had no idea whether it had ever happened anywhere.
In 2004, a year when the lone school board seat up for election was uncontested, 2,196 people showed up to vote in the library's election. This year voters will be deciding on a school budget with a 9 percent tax hike and a three-way race for two Board of Education seats, in addition to the library's $2,705,220 budget, so a heavy voter turnout is expected.
Write-in votes are common on absentee ballots, which only rarely affect the outcome of an election, Lilly said, but not in the voting machines. She offered no timetable for how long it might take district workers to count potentially thousands of write-in votes. "I was wondering about that myself," she said. "Last year there was only one write-in vote for seven polling places."
There will be some urgency, since the library board is scheduled to meet the following day, May 18.
Whoever wins must meet certain standards, according to library Director George Trepp. He or she must be at least 18 when sworn in, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the Long Beach School District - which stretches from Point Lookout to Malone Avenue in East Atlantic Beach - for one year prior to the election, and may not have been judged incompetent.
And there's more. The trustee-to-be must be able to read and write, although the law is mum on which languages qualify. Library employees are ineligible, as are people who live with library or school board trustees. The law also forbids library trustees from holding "simultaneous incompatible public office."
Happily, a felon may serve honorably, provided his or her prison sentence has expired or that he or she has been pardoned or discharged from parole.
Library trustees serve without pay for five years, overseeing the management of the main library and two branches.
Last year, Warren Vegh and Eugene Colon triumphed in a three-way race, beating Siegfried Adler in a close contest. Adler, a computer executive, said he enjoyed last year's race but hadn't given any thought to running this year.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
