71°
CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. While most villages around New York are gearing up for Election Day Tuesday, the halls of Croton village offices will be as lightly trafficked as any other Tuesday.
For the first time ever, Croton will not have village elections in March because of a citizen-introduced referendum passed in 2011 to move elections to November.
The referendum aligned Crotons local elections with every other government election, except for school district budget season. Village trustees and mayor candidates will be on the same ballot as presidential and congressional races, state assembly and senate races, county legislative and town elections.
If you have a local race, the ballot in November this year will be quite full, at the top of the ballot will be the president, and probably on the back on the ballot literally will be the village officials, said Mayor Leo Wiegman.
The move will save the village about $5,000 annually and there is no longer an annual budget for village elections, according to village officials. Wiegman said Croton, along with other Westchester villages which have moved their elections, do not expect to be charged by the county in November for use of optical scanning machines.
The move to November could cause some unintended consequences for the village, including lengthening the primary season, distancing the budget from the vote and forcing the Westchester County Board of Elections to certify elections.
Caucuses used to form and nominate candidates in about January or candidates could petition to gain access to the ballot. One unintended consequence of the referendum is lengthening of the primary election season.
Because the village must now conform to state laws governing elections, the primary will be held on the second Tuesday in September, which this year falls on Sept. 11, 2012. The move creates two primary fates for New York, one primary will be held the fourth Tuesday in June for congressional races, the September primary to be held for state and local races. The congressional primary was moved from September in order to bring it into compliance with federal law, which requires a significant period of time between a primary and general election, allowing time for absentee ballots to be mailed overseas.
We've more than doubled the amount of time that will be spent on the election campaign. Im not saying thats good or bad, its an artifact of having the local election in November, Wiegman said.
The move also lengthened the terms of those currently serving by about eight months. The villages budget season, which is from June 1 to the end of May, will remain the same, on the recommendation of village staff to the board.
Under the old system, we had an election in March, Wiegman said, and those people were typically handed the draft budget even before that happens, so this puts a little bit of distance between elections and budgets.
Because the village elections are now on the ballot with several other elections, if elections require a recount or are contested, it could delay the certification of elections. Under the March election system, the village clerk could certify elections, and village trustees were sworn in the first day of the following month.
When the elections were held in March, the village clerk certified the election results. This could usually be done within 72 hours, or even 48 hours of the election, Wiegman said. Lets say the ballot has 36 races, the county may not certify any races in that ballot. It has the potential impact of not having the results certified in your local race even though you may be a candidate who won by 10 percent of the candidate or more, he said.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Cortlandt and receive free news updates.
