Deadline nears

Some school districts scrambling to get absentee ballots out after a vendor reported a shortage of envelopes.

With New York’s school board and budget votes just a week away, some districts are scrambling to get absentee ballots out to voters after a vendor that works with many New York districts and boards of elections reported a shortage of envelopes.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, school elections will take place by mail. The districts were required to mail out the absentee ballots to all eligible voters by Wednesday. Votes will be accepted by mail or at designated locations until June 9 at 5 p.m.

The Burnt Hills-ballston Lake district had planned to have absentee ballots sent out to qualified voters early, but it was informed on Friday by NTS Data Services -- the statewide vendor it was using to print, label and mail the forms -- that the ballot packets would be delayed due to the envelope shortage.

The district will instead work with a local printer and the Schenectady County Board of Elections to get the ballots and postage-paid return envelopes out in time for the vote, a district spokeswoman said.

NTS Data, which is based in western New York, sent out a letter to school officials on Friday with what is described as “unsettling news.” A delivery truck that was supposed to contain millions of envelopes for school elections had arrived late and without the supplies.

A company vice president, Heather White, said there was a supply chain backlog similar to the state’s shortage of toilet paper and hand sanitizer at the start of the health crisis.

“It is an awful situation and unfortunately totally out of our control. Your district is not the only District affected. We are doing everything we can to fix the problem,” White wrote in an email obtained by the Times Union. “We will continue to mail ballots as the missing

component supplies arrive and can be inserted.”

Some of the impacted districts found other vendors over the weekend and NTS Data worked to fulfill the remaining orders. Officials at Ravena-coeymans-selkirk managed to stay with the vendor and plan to issue 9,000 ballots on Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman.

Saratoga Springs Central School District, where officials were planning to mail out 35,100 ballots, was also impacted by the shortage. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about how the issue was resolved.

Some school leaders reached out to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office, asking if the vote could be delayed.

New York State School Board Association counsel Jay Worona said over the weekend he got messages from school attorneys for districts across the state seeking a vendor to handle the last-minute job.

“I was advised today that it has been rectified in some instances,” Worona said Monday.

It’s unclear how many districts were impacted by the envelope problem, but other New York printing vendors do not seem to be experiencing the same issues, according to Cuomo’s office.

“We are aware of the issues with this one vendor, which have impacted a small number of school districts, and are currently working with several districts in coordination with printing companies to help ensure ballots are sent by the June 3 mailing deadline,” Cuomo spokesman Jason Conwall said.

The by-mail vote, and a compressed timeline to get the ballots out, has created a hassle and unplanned expense for school districts, which have struggled to identify and mail ballots to all eligible voters, as required by an executive order signed by the governor May 1.

Some districts have decided to send ballots only to residents who voted in recent elections or those who were registered to vote, while others sought to identify all eligible voters through county boards of elections.

Attempts to contact NTS Data Services were unsuccessful.