I’d like to address the Westchester County Board of Elections. I wouldn’t say that they’re incompetent, but right now I’m thinking they’re a little dumb. As a registered voter in Westchester who attends school in Broome County, I need an absentee ballot in order to vote (look, I’m not driving 3 hours in both directions just to vote–it’s not worth the gas burn–and I’m not registering in Broome because there aren’t many local candidates I care about).
So, I sent out a ballot request on Thursday, clearly marking the address I would be at in Binghamton and the dates I would be there. I expected to see the ballot in my mailbox upon my return to Binghamton a couple of weeks from now, so imagine my surprise when I saw my ballot two days after sending out the request. I figured that they wanted to send me the ballot before I headed back up to school, but I found it odd.Regardless, I filled out the ballot and will send it out on Monday.
Here’s where I start on the negative. My brother, who attends school in Connecticut, sent out his ballot request a couple of days before I did, and he has yet to receive anything from the BOE. How does that work? This wouldn’t be the first time the BOE slipped up. When I requested a ballot last year, they sent out two: one to my address in Binghamton and one to my brother–with my name and HIS address on the envelope. When he requested the ballot, it was sent to our address in Westchester.
When I first started voting absentee in the ’04 Presidential election, the BOE did a pretty good job of getting things right, but it seems that after the Midterms, something took a dive. I’m almost afraid that my vote will be counted wrong…I’m sure there’s probably someone out there who is dumb enough to screw up reading and counting a paper ballot.