WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. August 29, 2006: A former School Board of Education member, Dorothy Schere, explains the school board decision to have a separate date for the $69.6 Million referendum:

You left out an important part in your note to John Martin's question.

School votes are not allowed by Education Law and Election Law to be included in general elections. School votes are governed by a separate set of Education Election laws . So the Board would have to rent separate machines,( heaven knows where they would find them when another general election is going on), open different polling places for different hours, provide different absentee ballots and hire different election inspectors ( who are in short supply as it is) It would make the referendum more confusing as many people would have to go to two different sites.

All this would make voting very chaotic for interested voters.

The referendum is too important to the city to add this complication to voting.

I would urge our city voters to support it.

Dorothy Schere ( former School Board member)

WPCNR Notes: However, in view of the $69.6 Million expenditure being unprecedented in its size and scope in the city, and Education and Election law not prohibiting same day (not same ballot elections) would it not be in the district best interest to hold the referendum the same day as the general election?  School District election inspectors could direct voters to the correct place to vote on the referendum, (whether it is in a different place in the same polling place-- adjacent to the general election machines -- or a different building). If the rationale is to assure a low turnout of only interested parties, as Mr. Martin suggested,  then a separate election day for the referendum is easily understandable. When a built-in tax increase lasting 30 years is being considered, the expense of hiring workers and finding new voting machines seems a minor expense compared to $69.6 Million.