WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. October 17, 2006: Pending clarification from the School District, the positive vote on the referendum Tuesday night may not be enough of a margin of victory to approve the $69.6 Million bond issue according to the New York State Constitution, as a jubilant Board of Education hoped, unless the School District perhaps got permission from the state for a straight yes-no count without a specified winning margin.

Is Referendum Vote Approved at 53%? Constitution Seems to say otherwise. Photo, New York State Constitution by WPCNR News.

WPCNR has learned this evening, that according to the New York State Constitution, in order to pass the referendum for $69.6 Million today, the School District apparently needed 60% of the voters casting ballots Tuesday to approve the issue.

At 1,032 Yes Votes to 926 No votes, at this hour, pending counting of affidavitt ballots tomorrow, the district has only a 53% to 47% margin failing the state 60% requirement. According to the Clerk to the Board of Education, Michele Schoenfeld, less than 100 affidavitt ballots remain to be counted. However, if there were 100 Affidavit ballots all in favor it would still not deliver the 60% margin.  (1,132 Yes Votes to 926 No votes, yields a 55% margin -- 5 fiver percentage points short of what the constitution says is the required margin of approval.)

The paragraph in the New York State Constitution at http://www.dos.state.ny.us/info/pdfs/cons2004.pdf spelling out the margin requirements is on page 31, in Article VIII, Local Finances, Section 4 Paragraph H, and reads:

(h) any school district which is coterminous with, or partly within, or wholly within, a city having less than one hundred twenty-five thousand inhabitants according to the latest federal census, for education purposes, five per centum; provided, however that such limitation may be increased in relation to indebtedness for specified objects or purposes with (1) the approving vote of sixty per centum or more of the duly qualified voters of such school district voting on a proposition therefor submitted at a general or special election, (2) the consent of The Regents of the University of the State of New York and (3) the consent of the state comptroller. The legislature shall proscribe by law the qualifications for voting at any such election.

Pending a final canvas tomorrow, the yes votes may go up, and the point moot, reaching the magic 60%. The School District could not be reached at this hour to determine what this means to the tentative declaration of voter approval tonight. Votes were counted tonight on site by Board of Elections inspectors hired by the School District according to Ms. Schoenfeld.

Incidently, the paragraph also shows conclusively that  the referendum could have been legally held by the School District in the general election November 7.