Sandy Election Update - No changes? Really? It seems so.

Hey, Freeport,

So, in a fit of futility I decided to check the Nassau County Board of Elections website.  Forgive me for not linking to it, but honestly you can't trust it.  Why not?  Because when I checked it, surprise, there were no updates!  And yet here we are, with an update from the New York State Board of Elections!  Weird, huh?  No, more like "totally incompetent."  This is only a Presidential election, never mind the senatorial/house/local elections that are going on.  It's not like you should have your act together, even in the face of a disaster such as Sandy, by the day before the election.

Sorry, but my tax dollars go to support this lunacy, which is clearly not money well spent.  (Small update:  As I wrote this very article, NC BoE's website updated to include this list.  In other words, 12 hours before polls are supposed to open, they're just now acting on over a week of painful realities).

Anyhow, as you look through the NYS BoE list you'll be surprised not to find any locations in Freeport; not even Giblyn School.  That means that as of 6:00 PM EST the day before the election (12 hours before it starts), we should expect to find that people who normally vote at Giblyn are going to vote at Giblyn.  In fact, as far as I can tell, any and all election expectations in Freeport are for them to be exactly the same as they always have been - go to your usual place between 6:00 AM and 9:00 PM on November 6th, 2012.

There is a caveat:  According to the NYS BoE website, in the absence of sensible decision-making on behalf of the various counties in New York State, Governor Cuomo seized the reins of this situation and issued an executive order regarding provisional (affidavit) ballots...

Executive Order – Voting by Affidavit Ballot

Governor Cuomo has signed an Executive Order which provides for a voter who is a resident in the federally-declared disaster counties of Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, Westchester and of New York City (which includes Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond) who have been displaced by Hurricane Sandy:

1. To vote an affidavit ballot at any poll site in New York State, other than their regular poll site;
2. Every Board of Elections in the State shall transmit the completed affidavit ballot of any voter who resides in one of the above counties to the Board of Elections where such voter is registered to vote to be canvassed;
3. The affidavit ballot can only be canvassed for such contests for which the person was entitled to vote at such election.

So basically, as long as you are in a federally-declared disaster area, you can go to any polling place to cast a vote for the election, and it'll be counted.  That's a huge relief, because it means that in the case of confusion or any further changes, you can still cast your vote!  Just make sure to know who is running for the offices that you are voting for - or, at least, who you want to win.  As always, we stress that you vote not based on who you don't want to lead, but who you do want to lead.  Fortunately, as long as you know your preferred candidate's name, you should have no trouble in the event that there are more changes made at the last minute.

Because relying on Nassau County's Board of Elections to give you up-to-date, efficient information is a clearly mistake of cataclysmic proportions, since they can't get their act together.

Oh.  And do I even need to stress that not one scrap of information on this, y'know, ever-so-slightly-important issue appears on the Village webpage?  Nope.  Not that I expect them to have the latest news that even Nassau County couldn't get (From itself), but not even a question or statement about the election.  Not as of publication, anyway.  Just in case you were wondering.