WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. October 19, 2006: This may surprise you, because it surprised me, and surprised every one I talked to about it.

School District elections in White Plains are not supervised, reported or certified by the Westchester County Board of Elections, according to Tajiane Jones, assistant to Reginald Lafayette the Westchester County Board of Elections Commissioner. The conduct of a school district election and the reporting of its results is solely the responsibility of the City School District

This was a revelation to this reporter who had always thought that at every election in White Plains, the County Board of Elections oversaw the conduct and recorded and reported the results. They do not.  The School District which supervises the school budget vote in May of every year, and Board of Education elections when required is totally responsible for supervising the vote and reporting the results.

Ms. Jones said that the County Board of Elections makes available lists of Board of Elections Inspectors to the School District to select from to staff their six election district locations. Jones reported to WPCNR that the Board of Elections supplies the poll lists and signature books which voters arriving on School District Election Day have to sign next to their photocopied signature as they vote. Jones said the District purchases these sign-in books from the Board of Elections, and at the close of the election, the books with the records of who signed in to vote that day are retained by the School District. They are not kept on file with the Board of Elections.

Michele Schoenfeld Explains the Process

Upon learning this from the Board of Elections, WPCNR asked Michele Schoenfeld, Clerk to the Board of Education how the City School District runs its elections.

Schoenfeld said she supervises the election with the help of two assistants. She said the district hires Westchester County Board of Elections Inspectors, “most of whom,” she says, “are hired and trained by the Westchester County Board of Elections.”

She said they are given a list of rules and protocols to follow and there are three Inspectors, who read the results when the Polling Place closes and phone them in to Ms. Schoenfeld. Schoenfeld said the three inspectors sign a sheet  (A Statement of Canvas) attesting that the number of persons voting and signed in match the number of votes on the machines.

Inspectors Trained by County

Schoenfeld said the inspectors are trained in operation and opening and counting the voting machines by the County Board of Elections.

She explained that each voting machine arrives with a running total on it from previous elections. When the polls close, the inspectors note the number of tallies of  candidate votes or, in the case of the Tuesday election this week,  proposition YES-NO votes, and subtract them from the new total, as a check of how many persons voted, and match that number with those voters signed in. Schoenfeld said they sign a sheet guaranteeing the results. Of course this would mean when there is more than one machine, inspectors add the totals from all three machines to get the number of voters.

No Machine-Created Paper Record.

Impound for 30 Days.

Schoenfeld reported that there is no paper record created by the voting machines on how many votes were recorded when they are use.

Schoenfeld said the election machines are locked up for 30 days, which, looking forward would mean that the approximately 10 voting machines could not be used by the city in their general election November 7. As readers of WPCNR will recall, one of the rationales given by the School District for having the voting for the referendum proposition conducted October 17 and not November 7, the general election day was there were not enough voting machines for the school district to use. The White Plains City Clerk had told WPCNR the city had about 76 machines available, and they expected to use 63 in the November 7 election.

In view of this information told WPCNR today, that the machines the district used Tuesday are locked away for 30 days, those machines will not be available for the November 7 general election. This would indicate that the machines could have been available for use by the school district on Election Day after all.

As far as inspecting records of any School District election, Schoenfeld said the poll lists and sign-in books from Tuesday are available for viewing at the City School District as well as the list of the inspectors the school district hired to run each district.