Schools want to elect to say no
Districts don’t want to be polling places, citing student safety concerns
Schools in New York state want the ability to say “no” when election officials ask to use their buildings as polling places, according to members of the state’s education lobby.
That’s because local school superintendents are increasingly hearing from parents who don’t like the idea of strangers coming in and out of school buildings on Election Day.
“It’s districts responding to parents concerns,” Robert Lowry, deputy director of the state Council of School Superintendents said Friday during a briefing on upcoming education budget negotiations between lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
One lawmaker, Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-ossining, has put in a bill that would allow schools to decline their mandated use as polling places. Long Island Democratic Sen. Todd Kaminsky is backing a similar measure.
Currently, schools are required to host election polls if they are designated as
voting places.
In Albany County, 12 percent of poll sites are schools
Statewide, almost 27 percent of polling sites are in the schools, according to the state Board of Elections.
The number is higher in some downstate locations, where many of the parental complaints have originated. In both Suffolk County on Long Island and New York City, it’s 53 percent.
“Currently, if a school building is selected as a polling location by the county board of elections, the district has no recourse,” reads part of a state School Boards Association memo on Galef’s proposal.
The memo also states: “At a time when school districts are continually the targets of violent incidents, many districts across the state have invested in varied security enhancements including the hardening of doors and windows. They have also adopted policies that limit access to school buildings. Such policies may include keeping doors locked, required identification and escorts to enter the building. On election days, those procedures must be suspended and this can allow unfettered access to buildings and students.”
Adding to the concerns is the state’s early voting laws, which means that polls will be open days prior to Election Day, added Julie Marlette, director of governmental relations for the association.
Further complicating things is the new June primary day in New York, which comes during Regents exam week in high schools.
The School Boards Association acknowledges that some have suggested schools simply close for elections.
But those days would
add up, when one counts general elections, primaries, special elections, school budget votes, bond votes and, now, early voting. They estimated schools could lose more than a dozen days of instruction per year.
According to a 2016 survey by the School Boards Association, 85 percent of districts that hosted polling places for non-district elections kept their regular classroom instruction going.
Additionally, a third of districts petitioned their board of elections to move polling places outside of the school district. Only 10 percent of those requests were granted.