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Village Elections Set For Fall; Schools To Be In June

Schools will hold elections next month, while village elections will be delayed until early fall.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order last week delaying school board elections and budget votes statewide until Tuesday, June 9. The school board elections and budget votes will all be conducted by mail and all qualified voters will be sent an absentee ballot with return postage paid.

The Executive Order also delays local special district and village elections until September 15. Village elections were originally set for March 18.

“We’ve made great progress to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but we still don’t know when this pandemic will end and we don’t want to undo all the work we’ve already done to flatten the curve,” Cuomo said in a statement Friday. “We don’t want to put New Yorkers in a situation where they are possibly putting their health at risk, so we are delaying school board elections and conducting them by mail and delaying all local special district and village elections to help limit any unnecessary exposure to this virus among both voters and poll workers.”

The executive order only affects villages that were scheduled for March elections. In Chautauqua County, most villages have moved their elections to November.

The only village elections that were scheduled this spring were for Sinclairville and Westfield. Both races were uncontested. Westfield had two candidates running for two seats — Michael A. Catalano and Dennis Lutes. Both candidates have been endorsed by both the Republican and Democratic parties. Sinclairville also has two candidates for two seats — James Bailey, who is running on the Sunnyside Party and Jon Desnerck, running on the Helping Hands Party.

In Cattaraugus County, there are village elections taking place in Cattaraugus, Delevan, Ellicottville, Franklinville, Gowanda, Little Valley and South Dayton that are now moved to September. Neither Gowanda, nor South Dayton have any contested races.

In Gowanda, Wanda J. Koch and Aaron P. Markham are both running for two open trustee seats. Both candidates have been endorsed by the Forward Party.

In South Dayton, there are two trustees running for two seats and one justice running for one seat. Robert W. Killock and Lynn Rupp are trustee candidates, while Stephen S. Smuda III is running for village justice. All three candidates have been endorsed by the Democratic and Republican parties.

In New York state, village elections are normally the third Tuesday in the month of March, unless the municipality and voters in a referendum agree to move the election to a different date. Because Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day, village elections had been pushed to March 18.

The Democratic State Board of Elections previously voted to nix their presidential primary. New York will still hold its congressional and state-level primaries on June 23.

“In simple terms, Joe Biden is the only candidate left in the race to be the Democratic nominee. He and all of his candidates for delegate in New York State will be going to the National Convention, that is likely going to be a virtual convention,” said Chautauqua County Democratic Election Commissioner Norman P. Green.

According to Green, one potential wrinkle is that Andrew Yang, who suspended his run for the Democratic nomination for President, is now suing New York to force a presidential primary. Why does Andrew Yang care if New York has a Democratic Primary? It’s because these primaries are not winner take all. Any candidate who garners 15% of the vote, even if they are not an active candidate, will win at least one delegate and that means influence at the convention.

Chautauqua County will have just one primary June 23 to determine the Republican nominee for Busti Town Council vacancy. To service this vote, the Board of Elections will be opening two poll sites from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. They will be hiring election inspectors, providing face shields, gloves and sanitizers for all workers and any voters who come to vote without face covering will be provided a face mask at taxpayer expense.

Voting machines will be programmed for the primary and delivered and ballots will be printed. Every one of the 2,316 active and inactive Busti Republican voters will also receive, pursuant to Gov. Cuomo’s order, a no excuse absentee ballot application for the primary. The hope is that voters will stay home and fill out an application to vote by mail. The mailed application will include a postage paid return envelope to send back to the Board of Elections. Extended early voting office hours in Mayville will also be made available to Busti Republicans wishing to vote in person on a day other than June 23.

In Erie County, On June 23 residents there will still be able to vote on their next congressman for the 27th Congressional District. The seat was previously held by Chris Collins, a Republican, who stepped down and was later sent to prison for insider trading. Candidates on the ballot include Chris Jacobs (Republican), Nate McMurray (Democratic), Duane Whitmer (Libertarian) and Mike Gamms (Green).

Also on June 23, Cattaraugus County will a number of local primaries as well, but mainly outside of the OBSERVER’s circulation. They will be held in Olean, Salamanca, Ashford, Freedom and Little Valley. “We will have limited local primaries in 10 of our 52 election districts with approximately 3,981 eligible voters,” said Kevin Burleson, Cattaraugus County Democratic Election Commissioner.

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