Tuckahoe Village Departments

TUCKAHOE TALK
With Mayor John Fitzpatrick

Vote Early, Vote Often

November 23, 2008

I am sure everyone is grateful the big election is now over, but I have a few connected views I thought I’d share. The title of this article is a quote that on occasion is incorrectly attributed to Former Chicago Mayor Daley. In actuality, Al Capone uttered these infamous words. These words have different meanings to different times and certainly to different states. Since 2004 in many states early voting can mean almost a week early. In fact, nearly one third of the country, 44 million Americans, voted early in the November 2008 election. Not, however, in New York. For Tuckahoe and all of New York State it still means what it meant when Al Capone ruled Chicago: wake up early and vote at 6:00 am.

While Mr. Capone had people voting multiple times on the same day, New Yorkers, too, vote quite often. Each year Tuckahoe holds several elections: primaries in September, November Elections, Fire Commissioner Elections in December, our Village Election Day in March and finally, May brings School Board elections with Budget voting. The separation of all these elections is seated in a belief that national issues, such as war and the economy, shouldn’t factor into your selection of a Fire Commissioner, school board member or Village Mayor.

Many claim that not enough Americans take advantage of their constitutional right to cast a ballot. In New York, 37.7 % of eligible voters exercised their right during the 2006 November election and numbers indicate the 2008 turnout was higher. But considering the number of times the average New York citizen is entitled to cast a ballot and must schedule voting into his or her life, I believe it should be easier if we want more voters. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not implying it is difficult; it is, however, more restrictive in New York than in the rest of the country. Maybe it’s time for New Yorkers to have an opportunity to vote early like so many other states.

Should it matter why someone may want to vote early on paper or in person? Maybe they’ll be tired on Election Day, maybe they hate crowds or poll workers, maybe they are just plain anti-social, what difference does it make? For now, you must be sick, permanently disabled or away. If you want to vote absentee, I believe it should be allowed for any reason. However, judging by the present state of affairs and election law, I don’t expect to have the ability to vote early in New York anytime soon.

The simple fix might seem to be allowing "no excuse necessary" absentee voting. Unfortunately, this is against New York State's outdated 1938 Constitution. To implement any change to the current structure of absentee voting requires, either holding a State Constitutional Convention or another, likewise, arduous process. The Constitutional Convention path requires majorities of the Assembly and Senate to call for a referendum to convene and elect delegates. If I am not mistaken, the Democrats now have that power position, but of course, I am probably oversimplifying.

To call for a constitutional convention first requires elected members of the State legislature to take a stance. However, many other groups are hesitant to convene such a gathering as well. Public employees fear this may lead to changes now afforded by the state pension program. Also, opponents or proponents of issues such as gay marriage and abortion fear special interest groups attempting to add language during this event. Sadly, one is left with the understanding that even small fixes like simplifying voting regulations cannot be achieved unless everyone is happy. Perhaps, the historical labeling of New York State government as dysfunctional is not mere hyperbole.

Some people point to voter fraud as a reason against early voting, but there is already an easy ability to perpetrate voter fraud, even within our village. The current list of eligible voters in Tuckahoe and many villages includes numerous voters who have moved or reregistered elsewhere. Since the Village elections are not recorded with the Westchester County Board of Elections, there is in essence no way to catch those casting ballots in two locations during different elections.

I realize our County Board of Elections and all others around the country already spend their days splitting the atom, but one would think they should be creating a viable national database. This database should allow a person to be registered only once with others being removed from the system. Is it an unreasonable expectation of government to find solutions to fairly uncomplicated problems? I mean this isn’t shooting people into outer space; it is a database that can interface across states.

Interestingly, our state government, which finds it hard to move on anything, found consensus to move back our upcoming March Village Election Day. Instead of Tuesday, March 17, this year it will be held on Wednesday, March 18, due to Saint Patrick’s Day. Being of Irish descent myself, I feel quite comfortable declaring that the celebration of the patron Saint of Ireland should not move the day of New York State Village Elections. My feeling is that it’s hard enough to have people remember that March is an election period. But please don’t think for a moment I missed the irony of New York State’s ability to move things backwards but not forward.