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Why not coordinate school and general elections?

   Voters in the Schenectady City School District will be heading off to the polls Oct. 9 to decide whether they want to engage in a 25-year, multi-million-dollar lease with the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese for its former St. Luke’s School building. With the vote sandwiched between two local elections — the Sept. 18 primaries and a Nov. 6 general election — a sparse turnout is almost a certainly. After all, how many times can you expect people to go to the polls over such a short period?
   And then there are the wouldbe voters, who’ll show up where they voted in the primary or this summer’s special Assembly election, only to be told they have to go somewhere else.
   The point is, there has to be a better way for school districts to conduct such referendums. Granted, they — or even school board elections — aren’t held every day, or even every year; but when they are, they always seem to be scheduled for some crazy time not normally associated with election season. (For example, if they involve spending money, they’re almost always held in the dead of winter, when the most tax-sensitive voters — fixed-income seniors — are away in Florida.) It’s as if school officials really don’t want voters to have a say over such matters.
   Holding referendums isn’t cheap, either: School districts usually have to pay the county board of elections to move the delicate voting machines to their respective polling places (in Schenectady’s October referendum, there will be 15 machines, at a cost of $78 per machine). Then they have to pay dozens of poll inspectors and voting machine custodians to supervise the proceedings, etc. The school district estimates the cost for one of these elections is about $10,000.
   Finally, there’s the issue of where to vote: In Schenectady, and in other places, the election districts for general elections are different than for school elections. So often, people vote in one building for one election and a different building for another. Trying to keep track isn’t easy, especially for people who don’t vote often.
   Voter turnout for general elections is often below 50 percent of the electorate; for school elections, including budgets, it’s even worse. There’s a good chance both would improve if they were held at the same time and in the same locations.
   Such a change is possible though highly unlikely, it seems, because it would mean that the state Education Department and local school districts, as well as the state and local boards of elections, would all have to get together and work out the logistics of a major changeover. But with computerized voting machines coming along in the near future, and a new host of problems associated with moving them around, the time just might be right for school districts to cede the responsibility of holding elections to the people for whom it’s a full-time job — one that taxpayers are paying them to do.  

  
  
  

The schools should speak louder....I notice a trend of the schools(for the sake of safety---ha ha ha) of making it more cumbersome to get into your childs school and be involved......very very very beaurocratic.....almost as rediculous as the legislature......

......either they dont want us in or they promote fear in education---another big mistake for our posterity

fear=no foundation

we are wallpapering ourselves into a room without windows....shame shame shame

there is no more pioneering America just Big Brother.....

Quoted Text

With the vote sandwiched between two local elections — the Sept. 18 primaries and a Nov. 6 general election — a sparse turnout is almost a certainly. After all, how many times can you expect people to go to the polls over such a short period?

I hoped that the people would vote as  many times as necessary. It isn't winter, so the whether won't be an inconvienience.  And it is about one of the only times you can really make your voices heard. It is our money and our future. I hope that everyone gets out to vote. No matter how many times or how close each election is.