The 99th update
As of now, voters in the 99 A.D. will find three names on the ballot tomorrow: Republican Greg Ball, Democrat Ken Harper and Assemblyman Will Stephens on the Conservative and Independence lines.
The late, legal word out of the appellate court in Brooklyn is that state Supreme Court Justice Andrew O’Rourke’s ruling postponing that race’s election tomorrow was suspended. So, the state Board of Elections reverted back to the last legal ruling they had that was still in effect. That would be the appeals court decision from last week – that Stephens belonged on the ballot.
For more info on this whole thing, check out today’s earlier post.
He’s off, he’s on, he’s off, he’s on . . . When will it stop?
Anything’s possible between now and when the polls open in the A.M.
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I received a call from the Board of Elections asking me if I would open up Village Hall so that they could replace the name strips on Rows C&D [Independence & Conservative lines respectively].
They mentioned that the voting machine technician would be at Old Town Hall at 8 PM and at Village Hall at 8:15 PM. Richard Ruchala decided to join me, and I decided to stop by Old Town Hall first, since it was on the way, and I figured there was no sense being at Village Hall until the technician was done at Old Town Hall.
We arrived at Old Town Hall at 8 PM, where the technician was just starting to open the first of four voting machines. Richard and I watched him changing the strips on Rows C&D, which now have “Willis Stephens” under the column for State Assembly. At the third Machine, as we were watching the change-over, Richard noticed that on Row B [Democratic Party] the candidate for State Assembly read “Sandy Galef”, NOT Ken Harper [Sandy Galef is the assemblywoman who covers Kent, Putnam Valley and Philipstown].
Needless to say, this set off quite a stir. Cell phones left their holsters faster than the Earps and Clantons at the OK Corral. Election Commissioners, Party Chairs and candidates were called The problem could be countywide, since no one knows how many other machines may have a wrong Row B. Ken Harper could be on one or more balloting machine in Galef’s District, and vice-versa.
Tony Scannapieco, the Republican Elections Commissioner, rushed down to Old Town Hall with a replacement Row B name strip, and the errant machine was fixed. However, Tony and Bob Bennett, the Democratic Elections Commissioner now have to check more than 80 more voting machines countywide. They have a loooong night ahead of them.
Lynne Eckardt, the Democratic Party County Chair was frantically trying to raise her Town Chairs to get someone at each polling place at 6 AM tomorrow to verify every machine has the right name strips on Rows B, C & D.
It would probably wise for Republican Chairs to have people in the field checking machines to ensure a similar accident has not occured on Row A, the Republican line.
The two machines at Village Hall had the right strips for Row B, and the Rows C&D name strips were changed over to “Willis Stephens” in the State Assembly column.
If you get to a voting machine tomorrow and cannot find a candidate you had planned to vote for, immediately notify the poll watchers.
It’s been an interesting election year, and it just gets more exciting with each hour.
Please remember to vote tomorrow, and bring your family, friends and neighbors with you. After all the extra hours Tony Scannapieco and Bob Bennett are putting in this evening, the least we can do is give them a record turnout at the polls tomorrow, which are open at 6 AM and close at 9 PM.
Oh, and please remember to vote for Mike Santos for Putnam County Executive, Row B, Column 11 at a voting machine near you.
MIKE SANTOS